
Class Jj^ 
Book J 



PRESENTED HY 



GONTIER COL 

AND THE 

FRENCH PRE-RENAISSANCE 



BY 

ALMA DE L. LE DUG 



Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for 

THE Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty 

OF Philosophy, Columbia University 



Reprinted from the Romanic Review, Vol. VII, No. 4, 414-457, 1916: 
Vol. VIII, No. 2, 145-165, and No. 3? 290-306, 191 7 



NEW YORK 
1918 



GONTIER COL 

AND THE 

FRENCH PRE-RENAISSANCE 






GONTIER COL 

AND THE 

FRENCH PRE-RENAISSANCE 



BY 

ALMA DE L. LE DUC 



Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for 

THE Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Facutlty 

OF Philosophy, Columbia University 



Reprinted from the Romanic Review, Vol. Vll, No. 4, 414-457, 1916; 
Vol. Vlll, No. 2, 145-165, and No. 3, 290-306, I917 



NEW YORK 
1918 



A 

h 






\^.<.^ 






PREFACE 

My interest in the French Pre-Renaissance was first awakened 
by a course on the Renaissance in France, given by Professor T. A. 
Jenkins, at the University of Chicago, in 1906-1907. The phase 
of the subject on which I have written did not, however, take defi- 
nite shape until 1909-19 10, while studying at the Sorbonne, where 
I attended courses given by M. Antoine Thomas, whose thesis, 
De Joannis de MonsteroliOj vita et operihus, helped me to define my 
own subject. I here desire to express my obligation to M. Thomas 
for his kindness in putting at my disposal unpublished material col- 
lected by him, on Ambrosius de Miliis, which I have incorporated 
in my dissertation. I also wish to express my obligation to M. 
Roy, conseiller a la Cour des Comptes de Paris, for some material 
on the subject of Gontier Col; and to M. Prou, directeur de TEcole 
des Chartes, for so kindly answering my inquiries about Sens. I 
am glad of an opportunity to thank these distinguished French 
scholars who, despite the grave matters that occupied them, have 
taken time to give me the information I desired. 

Finally, I would express my thanks to the members of the Ro- 
mance Department of Columbia University; especially to Professor 
H. A. Todd for his constant help and for his careful reading of my 
dissertation in proof-sheets, and to Professor John L. Gerig, for 
putting at my disposal bibliographical and other data, and for help- 
ing me solve certain problems of presentation. My thanks are also 
due to Professor John M. Burnam, of the University of Cincinnati, 
for kindly consenting to read my transcription of the Latin ms. 
letter in the Tours library; and to Miss I. G. Mudge, reference 
librarian of Columbia University, for her generous help in the 
bibliographical field, and for reading the bibliography in proof. 

One word in conclusion. The texts of the passages published 
in my dissertation, and drawn from various sources, have been 
printed as they were found : they have not been modernized. 

A. DE L. L. D. 

Columbia University, 
April, 1916. 



^ 



CONTENTS 
Part I — Official and Diplomatic Career 

Page 

Introduction i 

I. Early life; fiscal position; Col becomes notary and sec- 
retary to King Charles VI 2 

II. Gontier Col goes to Avignon in 1395 as secretary of the 

embassy o f the Dukes of Berry, Burgundy and Orleans 1 1 

III. Gontier Col and his patrons, the Dukes of Berry and 

Orleans 16 

IV. Col on embassies concerned with the marriage and later 

with the return to France of Isabella. Embassy to 

Florence 20 

V. Treasurer and diplomatic agent; banishment (1401- 

1413) 24 

VI. Embassy to the duke of Brittany (1414) 29 

VII. Winchester Week ( 1415) 34 

VIII. Last years and death 42 

Part II — Literary Activities 

I. Gontier Col and the Quarrel of the Roman de la Rose. 45 

II. Gontier Col, a member of the " Cour Amoureuse " . . . . 53 

III. Col's role in the quarrel between Jehan de Monstereul 

and Ambrosius de Miliis 58 

IV. The Question of the Curial . -. 65 

V. Group aspect of contemporary literature 68 

VI. The role of the " negociateur " in the early Renaissance 78 

VII. Conclusion 79 

Appendices 82 

Bibliography 95 

Name-index 102 



vu 



GONTIER COL AND THE FRENCH PRE-RENAISSANCE 



PART L— OFFICIAL AND DIPLOMATIC CAREER 
INTRODUCTION. 

TOWARDS the end of the fourteenth century there appeared 
in France a small group of literary men, the best known of 
whom is Jehan de Monstereul.^ Together with his two friends, 
Nicolas de Clamenges and Gontier Col, Jehan de Monstereul forms 
the nucleus of a movement inspired by a deep admiration for the 
writers of antiquity and the Renaissance that was beginning in Italy. 
France produced no immediate successors to this group, and she had 
to wait about a century for her Renaissance, a fact that has often 
been put down to the prevalence of troublous times. That explana- 
tion has not proved satisfactory to all critics, some of whom claim 
that political conditions in Italy were equally troubled. In face of 
the lack of convincing evidence, it would be idle to speculate as to 
how far the temporary failure of the movement in France may have 
been due to the fact that two of the prime movers were of the 
Armagnac party and lost their lives because of poHtical animosities. 
Irrespective of results, they hold a place in the history of the incep- 
tion of the Renaissance idea in France. One of the chief of these, as 
has already been said, is Gontier Col, whose career shows an interest- 
ing parallel to that of his life-long friend, Jean de Monstereul, best 
known of the Pre-Renaissance group and according to some authori- 
ties the only real Pre-Humanist in France. Both men acted as sec- 
retary to Charles VI, both were inspired by a great love for classical 
antiquity, both had come in contact with Italian Humanism, both 
were Armagnacs, and both were murdered, it is believed, by the 
Burgundians in Paris in 1418. Their lives paralleled somewhat that 
of their contemporary and acquaintance, the Italian Humanist, 
Coluccio Salutato, Petrarch's friend. He too was a diplomat, the 
secretary of two Popes (Urban II and Gregory XI), and employed 

1 For the form of this name see A. Thomas, Le nom et la famille de Jehan 
de Monstereul in Romania, vol. 37 (1908), p. 594, note i. 

I 



in the service of the Republic of Venice; and his influence, like that 
of Col, was felt chiefly thru his personal relations with the men 
of the time and thru his correspondence, neither of these men hav- 
ing left works of a purely literary character — unless we except Col's 
letters in the " Debat du Roman de la Rose" the role he played in 
that quarrel being fairly well known. The fact is that Col is remem- 
bered — ^^by those few modern readers who remember him at all — as 
the man who wrote some rude letters to Christine de Pisan. 

The reputation that Col had among his contemporaries was a 
very different one, as is shown, for instance, by the Religieux de St. 
Denis,^ who speaks of him as a man of much learning and as one 
whose trustworthiness had been tested ; and this opinion is reflected 
by Petit dejulleville:^ 

" Ce f ut un etrange personnage que ce Gontier Col et sa vie est 
pour nous un exemple admirable de simplicite et de modestie. Qui 
croirait que ce personnage si peu connu a ete employe dans les am- 
bassades les plus serieuses, dans les missions les plus considerables ?" 

This modesty of Col's perhaps explains why a man should come 
down to posterity bracketed with a passing incident, when some of 
his real services to his country and to the development of the times 
had been overlooked. This does not mean that Col was a great man. 
As has often been said, however, the tendencies of the times fre- 
quently show themselves more clearly in the minor personages of an 
epoch than in the geniuses ; accordingly in the career of this Human- 
ist and diplomat we may be able to bring to light some of the im- 
portant characteristics and tendencies of the Pre-Renaissance in 
France. 

I. — Early Life; Fiscal Position; Col becomes Notary and 
Secretary to King Charles VI 

Gontier Col was born at Sens in the departement de I'Yonne. 
The exact date is not known, there being no parish records at Sens 
before the i6th century, but an approximation may be reached by 

2 Religieux de St. Denis, Cronicorum Caroli Sexti (Paris, 1896-1902), vol. 
iii, p. 3. For the Religieux de Saint Denis see: N. Valois, Jacques de Nouvion 
et le Religieux de St. Denis, Bihliotheque de I'Ecole des Chartes, vol. 6^, p. 233, 
Paris, 1902. 

8 Revue des cours et conferences, 1896, p. 542. 



3 V 

means of certain comparisons.* The first precise date I have found 
with reference to Col is 1379,^^ when he is listed as "receveur des 
aides," a rather subordinate position. He was killed in 1418,^ which 
would make a career of some thirty-nine years, based on the supposi- 
tion that 1379 was the date of Col's first appointment. His most 
intimate friend and contemporary, Jean de Monstereul, was 
born in 1354/ and was also killed by the Burgundians in 1418.® 
Monstereul's first appointment of which there is any record dates 
from 1375.^ It is probable that he was secretary to Charles VI as 
early as 1389,^° and there is positive proof that he held that post in 
1394.^^ Col had a similar appointment, possibly about 1387;^^ he 
certainly had a similar one in 1393. So that it seems that Col was 
born between 1350 and 1360. In the light of certain documents 
found by him, M. Roy fixes the date more closely than this.^^ In 
1435 Marguerite Chacerat, Col's widow, was about sixty-two. Her 
marriage to Col might very well have taken place about 1 388-1 390, 
and that, together with Col's position in 1379, has led M. Roy to 
place the probable date of Col's birth as circa 1354. 

Gontier Col's name is found spelled in a variety of ways, the 
most fantastic forms occurring in Rymer and Monstrelet. Some 
of them, such as Gautier, Gaultier, Goulthier, are probably due to 
mere blundering on the part of the scribes. Even the surname Col^ 
which is a fairly simple monosyllable, appears as Coll, Colle, Coh, 
Coel, and Call. The name is rather an unusual one in France in 
the fourteenth century. Besides Col's immediate family, we find 

* A. Thomas, De Joannis de Monsterolio vita et operibus, Parisiis, 1883, P- 80. 
U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age, Bio-hibliographie, 
1905-1907, article Gontier Col. M. Quantin, Dictionnaire topographique du 
departement de I'Yonne, Paris, 1862, p. 122. 

5 L. Delisle, Mandements et actes divers de Charles V, Paris, 1874, No. 1869. 
p. 914. 

8 Sauval, Antiquites de Paris, Paris, 1724, vol. 3, p. 304. A. Thomas, op. 
cit., p. 81, 

^ A, Thomas, op. cit., p. 4. 

8 Ibid., p. 13. 

» Ibid., p. 6. 

10 Ibid., p. 6, note 4. 

" Ibid., p. 8. 

12 See p. 8, infra. 

^8 Archives de I'Yonne, H 528. 



one Simon Col, a trumpeter of the King (1364)^^ mentioned by 
Machaut, and a certain "Marie Col, whose connection with the Col 
family, if any, is not apparent. ^^ There are also two curious refer- 
ences to a certain Gaulthier or Walter Col, in the service of the 
English King as "Connetable de Bordeaux" in 1439, and as Eng- 
lish diplomatic agent treating with the French in 1441.^^ The king 
he serves and the date preclude the possibility of this being our Gon- 
tier Col (died 1418), and there is nothing to show that our Gontier 
had a son of that name. 

References are found to several children of Gontier Col's. One, 
a daughter, married a certain Charles de Beaimioulin.^''' The wed- 
ding took place between the twenty-sixth of February and the fif- 
teenth of April, 1401-02, and, accordingto M. Roy, the Queen gave 
the bride " XX marcs d'argent dore."^^ That the wedding was cele- 
brated with great pomp and circumstance is shown by the presence 
at the wedding of three kings, seventeen dukes and counts and 
twenty-two prelates. Another daughter of Gontier Col, Catherine 
by name, married an "es'cuier du roy" by the name of Jean Spi- 
fame.^^ Gontier also had two sons, John and Nicolas, possibly 

1* F, J. Fetis, Biographie Universelle des Musiciens, vol. II, p. 332. 

15 See Th. Carte, Catalogue des Rolles Gascons, Normands et Frangois, 
conserves dans les Archives de la Tour de Londres. A Londres et se trouve a 
Paris (1643), vol. I. Rotulus Normanniae de anno 8. Henrici V, Pars 3. Mem- 
brana 24, p. 354, (An. Dom. 1420, 1421.) De terris concessis Mariae Col. 

16 J. Delpit, Collection generale des documents frangais qui se trouvent en 
Angleterre, Paris, 1847, vol. i, p. 257; J. Tardif, Monuments historiques, Paris, 
1866, p. 464. 

17 Poree, Histoire des rues et des maisons.de Sens, Auxerre, 1915, p. 21, note 
5 : " Mon cousin maistre Nicolas Col me fait maistre an escript, le IX* jour de 
juillet mil IIIP soixante-et-onze que maistre Jehan Col, son frere estoit trespasse 
depuis (que) maistre Gonthier Col, leur pere deulx ans depuys ; et que son 
pere avoit donne en mariage a sa soeur, qui esposa messire Charlies de Beau- 
moulin quatre mille escuz d'or et cent livres de rente et cy costa sa vesture et 
ces abillemens pour ces dictes noces .XXII cens et XI escuz d'or; et que la 
mere a Marguerite Spifame femme a present de Jaquet Le Mercier dit du 
Moulin, ot en mariage douze cens escuz d'or et le chappiau d'or qui fut prise 
quat're cens escuz d'or et la coiffe de perlez et la sainture d'or, et fut vestue tres 
honnorablement. Et que il y avait en au nosses de sa soeur et de messire 
Charlies trois roys, XVII que ducz que comtes et XXII prelas " (Arch. Yonne, 
E 300, fol. 137 v"). 

18 See App. A. This reference I owe to the kindness of M. Roy. 

19 A. Thomas, Romania, vol. 37 (1908), p. 598, n. i. Douet D'Arcq, Choix 
de Pieces inedites relatives au regne de Charles VI, Paris, 1863-64, vol. I, p. 426: 



named after Col's two closest friends, Jehan de Monstereul and 
Nicolas de Clamenges. John, the eldest,^^ became a churchman like 
his uncle Pierre Col the Canon^^ (of whom later), and Nicolas, born 
in 1397, who became maitre des requestes de r hotel et prevdt de 
Sens^^ and seigneur de Par on as his father had been before him.^^ 
Gontier Col was married about 1390 to Marguerite Chacerat,^* the 
daughter of Jean Chacerat, a rich merchant and draper of Sens,^*^ 

"Jehan Spifame, escuier " ; p. 428: "Jehan Spifame, escuier, cappitaine de 
Conflans-Saincte-Honorine," Paris, 24 mars. 1421. E. Raunie, Epitaphier du 
Vieux Paris (Paris, 1893), II, p. 2)77 ■ M. Roy, Le Chesfioy-lez-Sens, Histoire d'un 
fief et de ses seigneurs, Sens, 1901, p. 32. 

^^ Bulletin du Comite Historique, 1851-1852, p. 93. In a letter ascribed to 
Col because of internal evidence altho not signed by him, he asks of the Pope a 
boon for his son, to cover the educational expenses of the boy, in view of his 
ardor for learning, his great devotion to the Church, and his unmistakable voca- 
tion for a religious life. In this letter Col mentions his own services to the 
French King and to the Pope. Poree, op. cit., pp. 21-22. 

21 Nicolas de Clamenges, Opera Omnia, Lydius edition, p. 307. Epist. CX. : 
" Audieram iam Petrum Colli germanum tuum constantiae esse, de cuius ex tam 
diuturna ac remotissima peregrinarum regionum visitatione salutarique reditu 
atque sospitate tecum vehementissime guadeo," etc. L. Mirot: Les d'Orgemont, 
Paris, 1913, p. 223, n. 2, mentions him, in 1417, as follows : " Pierre d'Orgemont 
. . . fut remis en liberte ... a condition d'habit'er dans la maison claustrale de 
Pierre Col." The index of Mirot's work contains two more references to Jean 
Col (under the rubric: P. Col), which are as follows: 

Die martis sequenti, vicesima octava aprilis, congregatis ad sonum campane 
et convenientibus in capitulo dominis Jacobo Trousselli, archidiacono Parisiensi. 
. . . Johanne Colli, canonicis Parisiensibus, etc. {Op. cit., p. 263. Proces de 
Nicolas d'Orgemont. 28 avril.) 

Die jovis de mane, etc. . . . Et ibidem ipse magister Nicolaus descendit et 
carceres capitali intravit et fuit rasus in fonsura diaconi vel quasi: postmodum 
ad auditorium ad barram adductus et ibidem per dominos. . . . presentibus domi- 
nis. . . . Johanne Colli, canonicis Parisiensibus. (Op. cit., p. 265. Proces de 
Nicolas d'Orgemont. 30 avril.) 

Might not this be Jean Col, Gontier's son, concerning whom he wrote to 
the Pope asking for a living for him? As to Pierre Col's connection with the 
quarrel of the Roman de la Rose, see chapter on that subject, infra. 

22 Roy, op. cit., p. 33; Poree, op. cit., p. 22; D'Hozier, Bibliotheque Nationale, 
Pieces originales, vol. 807. Piece 7. 

23 P. Quesvers et H. Stein, Inscriptions de Vancien diocese de Sens, Paris, 
1897, vol. I, p. 516. Poree, op. cit., p. 33. 

2* Poree, op. cit., p. 21; Quesvers et Stein, op. cit., vol. I, p. 516; M. Roy, 
Le Chesnoy-lez-Sens, p. 33 ; A. Molinier, Obituaire de la Province de Sens, Paris, 
1902, vol. I, 2* Partie, p. 894. 

25 Molinier, op. cit., p. 894, note 3 ; M. Quantin, Inventaire-Sommaire des 
Archives Departementales anterieures a 1790, Yonne Archives ecclesiastiques. 
Serie H, tome III, P Partie, 1882, pp. 116, 893, 896, 904, 910, 913-916, 920-921. 



6 

and a benefactor of the Celestins of that town.^^ His daughter, 
domiceUa Margarete Chasserat relicta uxor domini Gonterii Col,^'^ 
left money to be buried by the Celestins, and pro quattuor obitibtis 
celehrandis in Quattuor Temporihus anni. Her son Nicolas attended 
to part of her bequest to them.^^ Gontier was not himself a poor 
man, as is shown by his seigneurie of Paron and the revenue it 
brought in.^^ He also owned at Sens the maison des Degres, the 
cellar of which still exists, situated on the Grande Rue, at the cross- 
ways where stood the parish church of S*® Colombe.^^ This house, 
which in 1302 had belonged to a draper of the name of Guillaume 
le Compasseur, and for which Nicolas Col in 1441 paid an annual 
tax of " 7 deniers " to the Abbaye of Saint Remy, finally passed into 
the hands of the Spifame family thru Catherine Col, who had 
married a Spifame.^^ All this would go to show that Col's posses- 
sions were fairly extensive. His father, Pierre Col, had also owned 
property as is seen by the record of the sale by Marguerite Chacerat, 
Gontier's widow, in 1425, of a piece of property that had been 
bought in 1339 by "Pierre Col de la Riole demeurant a Sens."^^ 
Gontier Col's parents, Pierre Col and his wife Isabeau, also left lega- 
cies to the churchmen of Sens, in return for certain religious ser- 
vices. ^^ In the light of the above, it would seem that Gontier Col 
was a good example of the contemporary bourgeois, living in a town 
where the bourgeoisie to which he belonged was strong,^^ and whose 
demeles with the bishop and the King form an interesting chapter 
of the development of the tiers Stat in France. Col prosecuted his 
studies in his native town as well as at Orleans,^' whose schools were 

26 Quantin, op. cit, p. 107. 

27 Molinier, op. cit., pp. 894, 919-920. 
^^Ihid., p. 918. 

29 Poree, op. cit., p. 32. 

so Poree, op. cit., pp. 36-37. 

31 Poree, op. cit., pp. 36-37; Quesvers et Stein, op. cit., vol. IV, p. 136, note i. 

32 Quantin, op. cit., p. 123. 

33 Ibid., pp. 105, 107, 123. 

^^ Bulletin de la Societe des Sciences historiques et naturelles de VYonne, 
1851. M. Quantin, Recherches sur le Tiers Etat au Moyen Age dans les pays 
qui forment aujourd'hui le departement de Sens: IV, Commune de Sens, pp. 
238-246. 

35 Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum amplissima collectio. Ed. by D. 
Martene, Parisiis, 1724-1733, VII, p. 471 : " Ego, Gonterus Colli, clericus Seno- 
nensis." A. Thomas, op. cit., p. 80, n. 4. 



well known in the Middle Ages. As has been indicated, Col's first 
position, so far as we know, was the post of " receveur des aides es 
terres entre les rivieres de Seine et de Dyne/'^^ That he had not 
held the post very long may be surmised from the King's grant to 
him, in the ensuing spring, of a house rent-free in Evreux, in view 
of the fact that he had no fixed residence there (" pour consideracion 
de ce que le dit receveur n'est pas du pais dessus dit").^^ He held 
a fiscal position in 1393,^^ judging by his '' quittances " dated in that 
year. It was probably while he was at Evreux that he rented his 
own house at Sens to the " Chambre " of that town, as is seen in the 
" Cartulaire Senonais."^^ This work as fiscal agent did not take up 
all Col's time, for he is listed among the King's notaries as early as 
the term extending from the sixth of "March, 1380, to the first of 
July following, 1381,^^ when he was in the " Chancellerie," and in 
the " Requestes," and for which he was paid six sous parisis per day. 
Col also received a "manteaul," or rather the money-value of it 
for "le terme de Noel, I'an M.CCC.IIIP^" (1380)^1 and also for 
the "terme de la Panthecouste en suivant I'an IIII'" et un." He 
also receives the value of a cloak for the term ending on St. John's 
day, 1383.^^ These were the regular perquisites of the "nottaires." 
Col is also listed among the notaries of the King to whom salary 

36 L. Delisle, Mandements et actes divers de Charles V, Paris, 1874 (No. 
1869), p. 914. 

^'' Ihid. (No. 1918), p. 933. 

3® J. Roman, Inventaire des Sceaux de la Collection des pieces originales du 
Cabinet des Titres, a la Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, 1909, vol. I, p. 384, No. 
3320, Quittances of G. Col., February 24, 1380-March 22, 1393. 

3» Cartulaire Senonais de Balthazar Taveau, public par G. Julliot. Sens, 
1884, p. 34: 

" Avant que ledict hostel de ville fust basty, la chambre se tenoyt " es salles 
du Roy, desquelles Colard de Caleville, Chevalier, bailly de Sens, fit mettre hors 
les meubles appartenans a icelle ville, en hayne des proces meuz entre lui et 
ladicte ville. Et tint-on ladicte chambre par quelques annees en la maison de 
Gonthier Col, secretaire du Roy, asise au coing Saincte-Columbe, qui fut louee 
six escuz par an, ainsy qu'il se voyt par le compte rendu par Pierre Oger, pour 
I'an mil IIP IIII" XIII cy-dessoubz inventorie, et cotte XXII. 

*o Douet d'Arcq : Comptes de I'Hotel des rois de France, au XIV^ et au XV^ 
Si^cles, Paris, 1854, p. 22. In a document dated February 24, 1390, Col does not 
subscribe himself as either notary or secretary of the King. (See App. B.) 
This does not necessarily mean, however, that he did not hold such posts at 
that time. 

*i Douet d'Arcq, op. cit., p. 27. 

*2 Ihid., p. 208. 



8 

was paid in 1382,^^ and for the "ternie de la Saint-Jean of 1388."^^ 
The date 1388 is interesting, in view of the Ordonnance of 1387/^ in 
item six of which, under the caption " Secretaires a gaiges servans 
par moys," Col's name appears. This brings up a point that has been 
a good deal discussed, that is, the difference between the notaries 
and the secretaries of the King at this time. That the terms were 
used loosely is seen from the citation in the Bibliotheque de rEcole 
des Chartes,^^ that about 1390 Gontier Col was a ** notaire-secre- 
taire du roy " at a salary of six sous parisis per day. This is the 
very expression, — " clerc notaire secretaire du Roy nostresire " — that 
Col used in referring to himself in a document he drew up and signed 
in 1393, in which he mentioned this sum, six sous parisis per day, as 
his due salary.^^* 

This usage of the two terms at the same time is probably due to 
the fact that altho there was a difference made between the no- 
taries and secretaries of the King in the first half of the 14th cen- 
tury, this difference disappeared later.^'' Both notaries and sec- 
retaries were ipso facto members of the "college" of notaries and 
secretaries,^^ a formal organization that became a confrerie with 
a charter under Jean le Bon (1350).^^ The charter was rati- 
fied and expanded in 1365 by Charles VI,^^ who made a number of 
gifts to the corporation.^^ There were certain religious aspects to 
this body; certain days were celebrated by solemn high mass, such 

*3 Ibid., p. 203. 

4*/&/ff., p. 241. 

*5 Secousse, Ordonnances des rois de France de la 3^ Race, Paris, 1722, vol. 
VII, p. 175, item 6. "Secretaires a gaiges servans par moys . . . Gontier Colet; 
ces deux, Gontier et Bethezar seront paiez en Languedoc, c'est assavoir, Gontier 
par cedule de nostre Tresor sur lequel il est assigne de ses gages ; . . . " In view 
of the dates, and the many known variants of Gontier Col's name, it may be 
taken that " Colet " is only another of these. I have, however, found no trace of 
Col's stay in Languedoc. 

46 No. 48, p. 420, n. 10. 

46a See App. C 

4''' L. E. Campardon, Essai sur les clercs notaire s et secretaires du roi depuis 
leur etahlissement jusqu'en 1483, Ch. II, §3, in Ecole Imperiale des Chartes, 
Theses soutenues par les Sieves de la promotion de 18 55-18 56. 

48 Morel, La grande chancellerie royale, Paris, 1900, p. 521, §2. 

4® March 1350-51 : Morel, op. cit., p. 500, for text of charter. 

^0 Morel, op. cit., pp. 520-527. 

51 Morel, op. cit., p. 103. 



9 

as that of " St. Jean-Porte-Latine/'*^^ who was more especially their 
patron saint, and on whose feast, the sixth of May, after having 
gone to high mass^^ and first and second vespers, the confrerie 
gave a banquet, and afterwards discussed matters of interest to 
them as an organization.*^* As those who absented themselves from 
these observances without a good reason had to pay a fine of cinq 
sous parisis, it is probable that the attendance was fairly good, and 
that the members had this occasion of meeting formally once a year. 
Informally they could meet as many times a day as they wished, 
for Charles VI had granted them, Nov. 29, 1370,^^ a room in the 
royal palace in which they could " faire leurs lettres, escritures, et 
eulx assembler et parler de leurs besoignes, se mestier est." 

To these "club-hfe" aspects of the "confrerie" were added 
certain features in which it somewhat resembled the modern benevo- 
lent association. When a member fell into poverty without any 
fault of his, the other members of the "college" assessed them- 
selves for his assistance, and the recipient was not required to pay 
them back until he was fully able to do so.^^ 

As a body, they had some jurisdiction over their members, 
showed in their charter great solicitude that their appearance should 
do honor to their calling, repeating some of the sumptuary laws of 
Charles V forbidding them to wear parti-colored hose and long, 
pointed, fashionable shoes.*^^ In addition to their salaries, these 
notaries and secretaries, as ofificers of the King, enjoyed many ex- 
emptions, e. g., from "peage, vinage, et toutes redevances et cou- 
tumes"; and from all the "tailles,"^^ and when by mistake their 
names were included in the lists of those levied on for war-taxes, 

s2Emile Raunie, Epitaphier du Vieux Paris, Paris, 1893, vol. II, pp. 309, 

53 Morel, op. cit., p. 521, § 3, " . . • Erit dicta missa in f esto beati Johannis 
ante Portam Latinam in mense maii ..." This was celebrated in the Church 
of the " Celestins," in whose cloister the confrerie held its assemblies. Cf. E. 
Raunie, II, 309, 327-330. 

5^ Such, e. g., as their attempt to suppress the abuse of privileges among 
their own members. Secousse, op. cit., vol. VII, p. 273. 

55 Morel, op. cit., p. 533. 

56 Morel, p. 523. 

57 Morel, p. 523. 

58 Morel, p. 396, n. 4. 



10 

the King had their names stricken out.^^ Add to the above that 
their letters were always sent gratis.^^ Perhaps it is not to be won- 
dered at, in view of all this, that, in spite of the ordonnances to 
regulate their number,^^ and the examination that they had to take 
to prove that they were "capables de faire lettre tant en frangais 
qu'en latin,''^^ the notaries and secretaries of the King were increas- 
ing in number out of all proportion to the need felt for them by the 
State. 

To this close corporation Jehan de Monstereul and Gontier Col 
both belonged, and to them must be added Pierre Manhac,^^ a per- 
sonage who is but a name to us, but whom Jehan de Monstereul, in 
mentioning his teachers, bracketed with Col. The importance of 
this connection with the confrerie ought not to be unduly emphasized, 
yet it should not be quite disregarded, when we take into account 
the role that the friendship between Col and Monstereul played in 
the development of Pre-Humanism in France. Indeed, the presence 
of a certain literary tradition among the " notaires et secretaires du 
roi,'* at this period, is of interest. Just a little after Col came Alain 
Chartier, and just before him one of the secretaries was Gervais du 
Bus, to whom has been attributed the second part of the Fauvel.^^ 
The question as to whether he really wrote it or not, is not the point 
here, but what is suggestive is, that he was held capable of having 
done so by critics casting about for an author. 

These literary proclivities were not the exclusive appurtenance 
of the notaries of the King, for the notaries of Paris also had a 
Confrerie,^ ^ and among them' are found two literary men of the 
times, Jean le Fevre, translator of the Lamenta of Matheolus,^^ 

59 Morel, pp. 558-559 (list of notaries and secretaries so exempted for 1404 
and 1405). 

60 Morel, p. 396. 

61 Morel, p. 562, October 19, 1406. 

62 Vuitry, Regime financier de la France. Nouvelle Serie, tome II, p. 387. 

63 For signatures of Pierre Manhac cf. Morel, pp. 559-56?; J. Du Mont, 
Corps universel diplomatique du droit des gens, Amsterdam, 1726-1731, vol. ii, 
p. 245; Secousse, vol. vii, pp. 175, 236; vol. viii, p. 417; vol. x, p. 463. 

64 Ch. V. Langlois, La vie en France au Moyen Age, Paris, 1908, p. 279. 

65 Leber, Collection de pieces relatives a I'histoire de France, Paris, 1838, vol. 

19, p. 325. 

66 Les Lamentations de Matheolus et le Livre de Leesce de Jehan le Fevre, 
de Resson, Paris, 1892. 



II 

and Martial d'Auvergne,^'^ both being "Procureurs du Parlement de 
Paris." That gross ignorance of things Hterary was not prevalent 
at this time among the "gens du Palais," is shown by the library 
left 'by a "greffier du Parlement" quite unknown to literary an- 
nals.^^ 

II. — GoNTiER Col goes to Avignon in 1395 as Secretary of the 
Embassy of the Dukes of Berry, Burgundy and Orleans 

In 1395 Gontier Col goes on his nrst embassy; the record of his 
official capacity, which he is careful to set down, runs solemnly as 
follows :^ Ego Gonterus Colli domini nostri regis secretarius, puhlv- 
cus apostolica et imperiali auctoritate notarius.^ This designation 
he repeats informally several times in the body of the Journal^ of 
the proceedings of the trip which he wrote, conforming in this to a 
fashion which had apparently been set during the thirteenth century 
by the Venetian ambassadors, whose secretaries sent in a written 
report of the proceedings of the embassy within a fortnight after 
its return.^ This embassy was the one headed by the dukes of 
Berry, Orleans, and Burgundy, which was sent to Avignon by 
Charles VI in an attempt to end the Great Schism. Col's Journal 
begins with the events of the 22d of September, 1394, when the 
news of the death of Clement VII reached Paris. The King at 
once assembled the Council,^ of which Col was secretary, and letters 

«7 Petit de Julleville, op. cit., ii, pp. 284-285. 

68 List of books in the will of Nicolas de I'Espoisse, greffier du Parlement: 
Alixandre ; Somme au Breton; Epistres de Pierre de Blois; De Vineis; Istoire 
de Troye la grant; Histoires d'oultremer; Policraticon; Epistres saint Bernard; 
Manipulus florum; Boece, de Consolacion; Stile de Parlement; Catholicon; A. 
Tuetey, " Testaments enregistres au Parlement de Paris sous le regne de 
Charles VI," p. 608 seq., Paris, 1880, See also A. Lefranc, Le Tiers Livre du 
Pantagruel et la querelle des Femmes, in Revue des Etudes Rabelaisiennes, 1904, 
3* fascicule, pp. 80-81. 

1 Ampl. Col. vol. vii, c. 465. See also Ampl. Col, vol. vii, c. 479. 

2 See Du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, Parisiis, 1840, arti- 
cle " Notarius." 

3 Ampl. Col, vol. vii, c. 479; c. 491 ; c. 505 ; c. 524. 

* See E. Nys, Les Commencements de la diplomatie et le droit d'amhassade 
jusqu'a Grotius in Revue de Droit international, 1883, p. 579. See also E. Alberi, 
Le relazioni degli ambasciatori Veneti al Senato, Firenze, 1839. Prefazione, p. 
vii seq. 

^ E. Jarry, La vie politique de Louis de France, due d'Orleans, Paris, 1889, 
p. 27. 



12 

were sent to Avignon to urge the postponement of the election of a 
new Pope ; for perhaps this might prove an opportunity to end the 
Schism. The French letters were apparently disregarded, and the 
next news that came from the South was that of the election of 
Benedict XIII, in whom France proposed to have great confidence, 
and to whom the King promised to send messengers for the purpose 
of concluding the matter.^ A meeting of the clergy of France was 
called^ and, after discussing the various means of ending the 
trouble decided in favor of the withdrawal of both Popes ;^ and the 
French Princes going to Avignon were so instructed. 

They set off with a great train of followers and making a great 
show. Nor is this beyond what might be expected in view of the 
importance of the undertaking and the reputation for luxury and 
display of the life at Avignon, a much criticized state of affairs^ 
that was due, in part at any rate, to the incessant coming and going 
of ambassadors at the Papal court, and of kings and emperors as 
well.^^ To these secular occasions of display must be added the 
religious holidays, feast days, funerals of popes and installations 
of their successors.^^ In order to make a proper showing at all of 
these manifestations of pomp and circumstance, the Popes had in 
their employ many artists and artisans,^ ^ ranging from the workers 
in cloth and fur^^ to the embroiderers and silver- and goldsmiths 
(of which, by the way, there were forty attached to the pontifical 
court in 1376).^^ These enjoyed great vogue, the rage for silver 
and gold ornaments going so far that gold plaques were sewed on 

^AmpL Col., vol. vii, c. 438. 

7 Ibid., c. 458. 

8 Ibid., c. 439-458. 

8 Petrarch et Oresme. See G. Mollat, Les Papes d' Avignon, Paris, 1912, pp. 
xiii, xiv ; E. Miintz, Uargent et le luxe a la cour pontificale d' Avignon, in Revue 
des Questions Historiques, 1899, Nouvelle Serie, vol. xxii, p. 34. 

10 Ibid., pp. 355-356. 

11 Ibid., pp. 348, 351-355- 

12 E. Miintz, Les Arts a la cour des papes, in Melanges d'Archeologie et 
d'Histoire, 1884, pp. 274-303; 1885, pp. 327-337; 1889, pp. I34-I73. 

13 E. Miintz, Uargent et le luxe a la cour pontificale d' Avignon, in Revue des 
Questions Historiques, 1899, p. 384; E. Miintz, Quelques artistes avignonnais du 
pontifical de Benott XIII, in Bulletin de la Societe Nationale des Antiquaires de 
France for 1886, p. iii. 

^^Ibid., p. 392. See below. 



13 

the gloves of the Popes/ ^ while Benedict XIII in 1405 paid three 
hundred florins courants for a bit of silver enamel for his mule.^^ 

The Popes were solicitous of having a fit setting for these 
pageants. The palace of the Popes is a monument to their care in 
this direction/"^ and, in the palace, paintings signed by well-known 
names, vying with valuable tapestries, gave a colorful background 
to the glittering crowd of courtiers and prelates who thronged 
Avignon.^ ^ But there is also another and more engaging manner 
in which the Popes of Avignon played the role of Maecenas; I mean 
as protectors of learning. The interest of Urban V^^ in founding 
schools and collecting a library, as well as the scholarly tastes of 
Gregory XI,^^ had set a certain intellectual standard at the Pon- 
tifical Court. 

Our three dukes set out from Paris, traveling by boat (from 
Chalons) a great part of the distance,^^ and stopping at Dijon, 
where they were entertained by the court of Burgundy,^^ and where 
presents were exchanged. Col was with the ambassadors at the 
time. At Lyons also the dukes made a stay, and did not reach 
Avignon until Saturday, May 22, at four o'clock in the afternoon. 
Their credentials were at once presented to the Pope.^^ Benedict 
received them "moult honorablement " and after an exchange of 
compliments they "allerent en la chambre de parement et la prin- 
drent vin et espices."^* The next day, Sunday, the envoys dined 
with the Pope, and it was not until Monday that the business of 
the embassy was touched upon, for that day was given to the formal 
opening discourse by Gilles Deschamps. Only on Tuesday, then, 

^^ Ibid., p. 392. 
16 Ibid., p. 389. 

^"^ Digonnet, Le Palais des Papes d' Avignon, Avignon, 1907 ; J. Guiraud, 
UEglise Romaine et les origines de la Renaissance, Paris, 1904, pp. 22-29. 
IS Guiraud, op. cit., p. 41 seq. 

19 Mollat, pp. 106-107. F. Ehrle, Historia bibliotecae romanorum pontifi- 
cum turn Bonifatianae turn Avenionensis, Rome, 1890, vol. i, pp. 274-450. 
Guiraud, pp. 52-78. 

20 Mollat, p. 119; Ehrle, vol. i, 451-574. For both see also M. Faucon, La 
Librairie des Papes d' Avignon, Paris, 1886, in Bibliotheque des £coles Frangaises 
d'Athenes et de Rome. 

21 N. Valois, La France et le Grand Schisme d'Occident, Paris, 1896-1902, 
vol. iii, p. 45. 

22 E. Jarry, La vie politique de Louis de France, due d'Orleans, p. 132. 
^^ Ampl. Col, vol. vii, c. 487. 

^^ Ampl. Col., vol. vii, c. 488 seq. 



14 

was the matter really taken up in an audience with the Pope and Car- 
dinals. The French envoys soon found that the Pope stood uncon- 
ditionally for ending the Schism by a compromise; they, on the 
other hand, were committed to the " voie de cessation." The meet- 
ings were constant, and the dukes stayed on at Avignon as late as 
the first week in July without having effected any perceptible change 
in Benedict's point of view, or having even persuaded him to give 
them an " audience publique en plein consistoire."^^ 

" Pour laquelle chose les devant dits dues prindrent adonc congie 
du pape, et se offrent a rapporter au roy tout ce que sa saintete par 
eux lui voudroit denoncier. Auquel dirent finablement apres les 
choses devant dites, que ce n'estoit point, ne n'avoit este de leur en- 
tention de luy exposer ou faire exposer aucune chose qui ne cedat 
au bien de la besoigne, I'honneur de Dieu et de I'eglise et de sa 
saintete : Apres lesquelles choses ainsi dites, le pape leur pria moult 
affectueusement, que le lendemain ils voulsissent disner avec lui, et il 
parleroit encore a eux; et ils repondirent qu'ils y avoient assez mange, 
et qu'il avoit parle a eux tant comme il luy avoit p\\x, et que s'il ne 
leur vouloit autre chose dire, et venir a la voye que le roy luy con- 
seilloit, qu'ils ne lui parleroient plus, et qu'ils s'en alloient devers le 
roy qui les avoit mandez, et les hastoit fort, et luy rapporteroient 
ce qu'ils avoient trouve et a tant se partirent et s'en allerent." 

Thus the French envoys finally left Avignon shortly after the 
ninth of July, having accomplished nothing towards bringing the 
Schism to an end.^^ 

As far as literary merit is concerned, the only claim that the 
Journal has to offer is a certain clearness of phrasing, and an ability 
to keep to the point. There is no attempt at style or fine writing, 
even in handling the speeches made by members of the embassy or by 
the Pope, Col contenting himself with giving an outline of the con- 
tents in the most matter-of-fact way. It is only in a certain soften- 
ing of asperities that one catches glimpses of the diplomat beneath 
the secretary. 

Col's Journal has been considered of importance in the history 
of the relation of France to the Schism.^'' Valois has touched on 

25 Ibid., c. 527. 

26 Jarry, op. cit., p. 133 ; Valois, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 65, 

27 Printed in the Am. Col., vol. vii, c. 47^528, from the MS. in the Biblio- 
theque Nationale, J. 518. In the library of Carpentras (see Catalogue general 
des MSS. des Bibliotheques Publique s de France, vol. 35, p. 435. Collection 
Peires, 1801, p. xxxii). Recueil ayant pour titre au IP fol., I Genealogies, fol. 



15 

rather an interesting point in showing how much Col's work had 
been drawn upon by the Religieux de St. Denis in his Chronica 
Caroli Sextv^^ when describing the dukes' trip to Avignon. He 
says, ** Le Religieux de St. Denis a eu ce document sous les yeux, 
mais ne I'a pas toujours utilise d'une facon heureuse."^^ This is 
quite obvious on comparing the two documents. The Religieux cur- 
tails, paraphrases, transposes and adds to the original document. 
That he is inaccurate has been pointed out in a number of cases by 
Valois,^^ who also draws attention to the closeness with which the 
"Religieux" occasionally follows Col's text.^^ The ReHgieux, 
again, notes gossip that Col, mindful of his official position, leaves 
out. A case in point is the burning of the bridge at Avignon, con- 
cerning which the St. Denis chronicler repeats the charge current 
at the time that the Pope had been accused of burning the bridge 
at Avignon as an insult to the dukes. "^ Col simply makes a note 
of the fire, without any comment. ^^ 

The " ReHgieux " does not always use Col's material quite as it 
is found in the Journal. An instance of this is found in connection 
with the meeting of the duke of Berry and the Cardinals. At this 
point in his Journal, Col refers the reader to his Latin minutes of 

285, " Excerpta ex relatione facta per magistrum Gontierium, regium secre- 
tarium, de solemni legatione facta nomine regis ad papam Benedictum," etc. 
I'Abbe J. B. Christophe, in Histoire de la Papaute pendant le 14^ Steele, Paris, 
1853, vol. iii, 151, 153, meniions Col, and refers to journal in the Ampl. Col. with- 
out crediting it to him. Mentioned by Molinier, Sources de I'histoire de France, 
Paris, 1901-06, vol. iv, p. 176, No. 1367; E. Jarry, Vie de Louis d'Orleans, etc., 
p. 127; M. Creighton, History of Papacy, New York, 1899, vol. i, p. 149; N. 
Valois, La France et le Grand Schisme d'Occident, vol. iii, p. 3. 

^^ Bihliotheque de I'Bcole des Chartes, No. 63, p. 238 seq. ; N. Valois, op. cit., 
vol. 3, ch. i. 

29 Valois, op. cit., vol. 3, p. 3, n. i. 

^^ Ibid., p. 46, n. 3, Col's statement (Ampl. Col. vol. vii, c. 487) here is borne 
out by E. Petit, Itineraire de Philippe le Hardi et Jean sans Peur, Paris, 1888, p. 
242. For other instances see Valois, vol. 3, p. 20, n. 3 ; p. 33, n. 2; p. 46, n. 3; p. 
47, n. 4; p. 53, n. I ; p. 60, n. 2; p. 61, n. 3. 

31 See Ampl. Col., vol. vii, c. 491, §20; and R. de St. D., vol. 2, p. 258. 

32 Ibid., p. 296. 

33 Ampl. Col., vol. vii, c. 504-505 : 

Item, celle nuit environ minuit nos seigneurs estant a Villeneuve, furent 
toutes arses deux arches de bois qui estoient au pont d'Avignon, sans y rien 
demourer jusques a I'eau, et ne sgait-on qui le feu ybouta et esconvint (doit) adonc 
tout homme aller et venir par battiaux de Villeneuve en Avignon, & d'Avignon 
a Ville-neuve, & fut la ville d'Avignon de ce faict tres troublee et en grant peur, 
et le pape pareillement, si comme on dit. 



i6 

the meeting, "ut in instrumento Latino superius relate."^* The 
" Religieux " not unnaturally gives in his text an extended account 
of the seance.'^^ He does this also with respect to the bull^^ drawn 
up by Col for the text of which "Maitre Gontier refers the reader to 
the Spicilegium of d'Achery.^'^ Parallel passages from the two 
works will illustrate how Col's Journal has been used by the " Re- 
ligieux."^^ 

HI. — Gontier Col and his Patrons, the Dukes of Berry and 

Orleans 

The influence of the Avignon mission on Col is interesting from 
several points of view. He was brought in contact with the early 
Italian Renaissance, with the city on which Petrarch had left his 
mark. Under the Popes, Avignon was half Italian; it was a town 
of color and display, of luxury and learning, of the cultivation of 
all the arts of existence, and his stay there gave Col a foretaste of 
that Italian life of which he had a further glimpse at the time of his 
embassy to Florence, in 1396. It is probably also during this trip 
to Avignon that he became known to the dukes of Berry and Or- 
leans, with whose entourage he was connected. 

The statement has been made that Col was secretary to the 
Duke of Orleans.^ Whether he was formally in his employ or not, 
the fact remains that he was the recipient of his favors, as seen in 
the gift to Maitre Gontier of a fur-lined red woolen serge cloak for 
the New Year.^ It is easier to establish the fact that he was sec- 

^^ Ampl. Col, vol. vii, 466-472. 

35 R. de St. D., vol. ii, pp. 264-276. 

36 Ibid., ii, 286 seq. 

^'^ Ampl. Col., vol. vii, col. 504. Edita Spicil., tome 6. 

38 R. de St. Denis, vol. ii, p. 255 sqq. ; Ampl. Col., vol. vi, cols. 488-489. 

^ J. Roman, Inventaires et Documents relatifs aux joyaux et tapisseries des 
princes d'Orleans-Valois, 1 389-1 481. — Published in the Recueil d'anciens inven- 
taires, imprimes sous les auspices du comite des travaux historiques et scien- 
tifiques. Section d'Archeologie, Paris, 1896, vol. i, p. 176, note. This is the only- 
statement that I have found concerning Col's secretaryship to the Duke of 
Orleans, and Roman cites neither source nor reference on the point. 

2 J. Roman, Ibid., p. 176: 

Ce sont les parties de robes fourrees par Thomassin Potier, foureur et var- 
let de chambre de Monseigneur le due d'Orhens, pour Monditseigneur le Due, 
pour Charles et Philippe, messeigneurs ses enfans et autres a qui mondit seig- 
neur a donnees robes en ceste presente annee, commengant premier jour de 



17 

retary to the duke of Berry, although not to fix the date when he 
first took the post. There is an indirect reference connecting him 
with Berry in 1398-1399,^ and he is formally entered as the duke's 
secretary in 1407."* 

Various considerations go to prove that Col shared Berry's well- 
known "Amour extreme pour les arts,"^ the love "des beaux 
livres enlumines, des riches joyaux, des elegantes ciselures, des re- 
liques enchassees dans Tor et les pierres precieuses."^ For if, as 
Michelet says,^ Louis of Orleans was the "esprit de la Renais- 
sance" (and the role that Valentine Visconti^ played in bringing 
the Italian Renaissance into France is well-known),^ still the figure 
of John of Berry must not be forgotten. There was a good deal of 
the Italian Renaissance about Charles's uncle, with his love of 
luxury and his cultivation of the arts, his disregard of the provenance 
of the money that he spent Hke water in his role of a princely 
Maecenas,^^ the extortions that he exercised upon his subjects, and 
the notorious mismanagement of his provinces. 

Fevrier mil CCCIIII" et seize, et finissant derrenier de Janvier ensuivant mil 
CCCIIII" et dix-sept. 

(P. 176.) No. 368. Item ce jour (le premier jour de Janvier ensuivant No. 
367) trois longues houpelandes que Monseigneur a donnees, c'est assavoir, deux 
de drap de Dampmas noir, Tune a Regnault d'Angennes. et I'autre a Oudart de 
Renty, escuiers du Roy nostre Sire, et I'autre d'escarlate vermeille, a Maistre 
Gontier Col, son secretaire, toutes fourrees de martres de Pruce, d'achat pour 
fagon XV s. p. pour chascune valent . . . XLVIII s. p. 

The above is also quoted in full by E. M. Graves, Quelques pieces relatives 
a la vie de Louis I, due d'Orleans, et de Valentine Visconti sa femme, Paris, 
1913, p. 159. 

3 Douet d'Arcq, Comptes de I'hotel des rois de France au XIV^ et au XV^ 
siecles, under heading Extraits d'un compte de I'Hotel de Jean, due de Berry, 
du I tnai 1398 au dernier fevrier suivant (1399), p. 312. Menus dons et offrandes. 
A Perrin de Bourdeduc, varlet de maistre Gontier Col qui amena de par le roy 
Nostre sire a Monditseigneur, ung coursier, 4 1, t. 

* Rymer, Foedere, Londini, 1726-1735, vol. 8, p. 523. 

5 L. Raynal, Histoire du Berry depuis les temps les plus anciens jusqu'en 
1789, Bourges, 1844-47, vol. ii, p. 376. 

® A. de Champeaux et P. Gauchery, Les travaux d'art executes pour Jean de 
France, due de Berry, Paris, 1894, pp. 1 14-185. 

7 Histoire de France, Paris, 1879-1884, vol. v, p. 160. 

8 A. M. F. Robinson, The End of the Middle Ages (London, 1889), pp. 102- 
178. See also note 7. 

» P. Champion, Vie de Charles d'Orleans, Paris, 191 1. 

^0 J. Gauchery, Influence de Jean de France, due de Berry sur le developpe- 
ment de I'architecture et des arts a la fin du XIV^ et au commencement du XV^ 
Steele" Caen. 19 10. 



i8 

Col apparently shared some of the artistic tastes, if not the 
methods of indulging them, of his princely patron; Col's present 
to the Duke of Berry of a " Bien Grande mappemonde escripte et 
historiee"^^ goes to show this. It is not the only present that he 
made to the Duke, judging from an entry concerning a gift made 
by Madame de Berry to the Duke of Burgundy of "Unes Heures 
de Nostre Dame historiees . . . et y sont les armes de maistre 
Gontier Col.''^^ 

A description of CoFs seal may not be out of place here, as his 
arms have proved a valuable means of tracing some of his artistic 
possessions: "Ecu portant une fasce accompagnee de trois cols de 
cygne timbree d'une tete humaine, supporte par deux personnages 
assis."^^ M. Roy gives the armoiries of the Col family as follows 
{op. cit., p. 33, note) : De gueules a la fasce d'azur chargee de 3 
etoiles d'or et accompagnee de 3 tetes de cygne au nature!, 2 et i. 

This device belongs to the class of "punning" coats-of-arms 
{armes parlanies), and bears some features similar to that of the 
Duke of Berry, which consists of a bear and a swan, a pun on the 
first word of his motto,^^ " Oursine [ours, cygne] le temps venra."^^ 

It is Col's arms also that revealed the presence of his " tapiz " in 
the " Inventaire des tapisseries du roy Charles VI vendues par les 
Anglais en 1422."^^ Nothing certain is known on the subject, but 
in view of Col's connection with the Palais, it is fairly easy to infer 
how his " tappiz " came to be found there.^"^ 

11 L. Dellsle, Recherches sur la lihrairie de Charles V, Paris, 1907, vol. ii, p. 
254; J. Guiffrey, Inventaire de Jean, due de Berry, vol. i, p. 263. 

12 Delisle, ibid., ii, p. 238. 

13 J. Roman, Inventaire des Sceaux de la Collection des pieces originales 
du Cabinet des Titres a la Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris, 1909), vol. i, p. 384. 

"^^ Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires du Centre, 1899, pp. 62-73. For 
the Duke's interest in bears, see S. Luce, La France pendant la guerre de cent 
ans" Paris, 1890-93, i^ Serie, pp. 223, 226. 

15 Michelet, Histoire de France, vol. v, p. 85, note 3. 

^^Bibliotheque de I'Bcole des Chartes, No. 48, pp. 105 and 420. Item, un 
autre tappis, fait aus armes, comme Ten dit, de maistre Gontier Col, contenant 
sept aulnes et demie. XXIIIJ s. p. — p. 420. Item, ung tappis vielz, fait, comme 
Ten dit, aux armes de maistre Gontier Col, contenant VIJ aulnes et demie, 
inventorie ou dit inventoire articulo. 

17 This is not the place to do more than mention the vogue of tapestries in 
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and their importance to literature in its 
graphic aspects. Its significance here is that it brings out Col's love for the 



19 » 

There is one side of the Renaissance — the Pagan side — with 
which Col apparently had little sympathy. An obvious if not very 
convincing religious feeling is strikingly characteristic of the Duke 
of Berry — a sentiment that Col apparently shared; and the gift 
made by Col to the Duke for the New Year, 1404, might without 
anachronism have found its place in the midst of the Middle Ages. 
This was the gift of a silver arm, in which were set " a bone from the 
arm of St. Stephen, a bone from the arm of Ste. Colombe, and sev- 
eral other relics."^® It may have been in the nature of a return gift 
for the forty "gectours" given him by the duke in 1401, each bear- 
ing on one side " Our Lady holding her child, and on the other the 
arms of the duke." 

Enough has been said to show that the attitude of the French 
dukes of the royal family as to the protection and cultivation of the 
arts bore a resemblance to that of the contemporary Italian princes. 
It was not yet the well-defined Renaissance point of view; every- 
thing done at this time still retained a strong mediaeval flavor, and 
it was preeminently an age of transition. What is to be noted is 
the trend of the times, and the struggle for expression in terms of a 
new formula of life. The Pre-Renaissance in France was not a 
purely scholarly movement, it had its artistic side, in which even an 
"intellectual" like Col, whose Humanistic development will be in- 
vestigated later, takes an active interest. France did not have to 
wait for Francis I in order to enjoy the picturesque spectacle of 
Princes who cultivated the arts and vied with each other in ex- 
travagance. 

oh jets d'art. See J. Guiffrey, Histoire de la tapisserie en France, Paris, 1878-85 ; 
A. Jubinal, Recherches sur I'usage et I'origine des Tapisseries a Personnages 
dites historiees, Paris, 1840; E, Miintz, La Tapisserie, Paris, 1882. 

^8 J. Guiffrey, Inventaire de Jean, due de Berry, Paris, 1894-96, vol. ii, p. 181, 
No. 205 : 

Item, un bras d'argent ouquel a un os du bras de Monseigneur Saint 
Estienne, un autre os du bras de Sainte Colombe et plusieurs autres reliques; 
lequel bras ainsi garni de reliques, comme dit est, maistre Gontier Col avait 
donne a mondit Seigneur a estrainnes, le premier jour de Janvier, Tan mil CCCC 
et quatre. 

Vol. ii, p. 39, No. 254 : 

Item. Sept vins treze gectours d'argent, en chascun desquelz a en Tun des 
coustez un ymage de Nostre Dame tenant son enfant, et en I'autre les armes de 
mondit Seigneur ; pesans trois mars, une once, quatre esterlins. 

Dominis dedit XL magistro Gonterio Col ut monstrat per compotum dicti 
Robineti . . . etc. (1401). 



20 

IV. — Col on Embassies concerned with the Marriage and 

LATER WITH THE RETURN TO FrANCE OF ISABELLA. 

Embassy to Florence 

The mission to Avignon may have had some influence in bringing 
about Col's connection with the next embassy on which he went — 
a lay mission this time, yet one in which his experience at Avignon 
and his knowledge of the conditions there might prove of value, 
although the question of the Schism was to. be taken up only as a 
side issue. The enterprise now in hand was the marriage of Isa- 
bella of France to Richard II. The preliminaries were well under 
way when Col appears in the matter, and King Richard was anxious 
that the little princess should be given into his care in the first week 
of August, 1396, at Calais. The English king also expressed the 
desire of taking this opportunity to meet the dukes of Berry and 
Burgundy to discuss "sur le fait de I'Eglise et de moult autres 
choses touchant le bien et Thonneur de luy et du roy et de leurs 
royaumes."^ 

The king of France demurred,^ finding the time too short to get 
Isabella's trousseau ready, and suggesting Michaelmas instead. As 
to the meeting with the dukes, the presence of the Duke of Berry 
was doubtful, but Burgundy would surely meet the English king at 
Calais,^ and he would have power to treat of this question of the 
Schism. Burgundy had been a member of the Avignon embassy, 
as has been noted, so it seems natural to find Col's name in the list 
of those officials who were to accompany him to Calais. Whether 
Col went with him or not is not known, as his name is not in the 
list of those who were in Philip's company when he reached there 
some time in August.* This may be due to an oversight of the 
scribe, to some accidental detention of Col, or indeed to a third pos- 
sibility, which may be here set down. Up to this time Col had been 

^ Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique, vol. 19, p. 63; Leon Mirot, Isahelle de 
France, reine d'Angleterre. 

2 L. Mirot, Un trousseau royal a la fin du XIV^ Siecle, in Memoires de la 
Societe de I'Histoire de Paris and de Vile de France, vol. 29 (1902), pp. 125-158. 

^Instructions pour les dues de Berri et Bourgogne (1396), quoted in Kervyn 
de Lettenhove's edition of Froissart, vol. 18, p. 578, from Archives Nationales, 
Paris, J. 644: z^' Also quoted by L. Mirot in Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique, 
vol. 19, p. 66. 

* Ibid., p. 70. For date see Petit, Itineraire de Philippe le Hardy, etc., p. 255. 



21 

involved in the adjudication of the Schism, and there was to be a 
meeting in Paris in mid- August, called in history the '' journee des 
Prelats," in which that question was to be discussed. The occa- 
sion had been considered so important that, in the *' Instructions "^ 
before referred to, the point had been made that it would be expe- 
dient for the duke to be in Paris at that time. Judging by Philip's 
tardy arrival in Calais, there was a chance that he might not get back 
to Paris in time for the meeting, and in that case Col, as the writer 
of the " Journal " of the Avignon embassy, may have been detained.^ 

His name is not listed in connection with the elaborate wedding 
ceremonies of Richard and Isabella, October, 1396, and the famous 
interview of Ardres."^ In view of the number of noblemen and 
famous personages who were there present, it is perhaps not to be 
wondered at that a mere secretary of the King should be lost sight of. 
However that may be, in the month of November of 1396, Col 
went to Florence to negotiate a treaty with the Republic of Flor- 
ence for the King his master, Charles VI, which treaty was signed 
on the 23d of that month. In the text of the treaty Col is listed as 
" viro utique venerando atque egregio magistro Guntero Colli, Sec- 
retario & Ambassiatore & Commissario Domini Serenissimi Regis 
Francorum.." The treaty contained certain offensive and defensive 
features, by virtue of which Florence shortly afterwards called on 
the King of France for help against the Duke of Milan. In this 
letter, dated the 30th of December 1396,^ Col is mentioned as "pru- 
dentissimus vir," and reference is made to the fact that he knows 
the situation in Florence well, and will relate the whole affair to the 
King "viva voce." 

Col probably did not make a long stay in Florence at this time; 
but in view of his official position all sorts of doors were open to 
him, and he had the best possible opportunities to meet the eminent 

5 Froissart, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, Bruxelles, 1874, vol. 18, p. 580. 

^ Denifle and Ehrle, Archiv fiir literatur und kirchengeschichte des mittelal- 
ters, Sechster Band, 1892, pp. 204-210, might lead one to suppose that it was 
not in his official capacity. 

^ P. Meyer, Annuaire-Bulletin de la Societe de I'Histoire de France, vol. xviii 
(1881), p. 220 seq. L. Mirot, Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique, vol. 19, pp. 83-95. 
Religieux de St. Denis, vol. ii, pp. 452-473. 

8 Roy, Le Chesnoy-lez-Sens, p. 32 ; J. C. Liinig, Codex Italiae Diplomaticus. 
Francofurti & Lipsiae, 1725, vol. I, cols. 1109, 11 16. 



22 

scholars of Humanistic Florence, and Col was not the man to neglect 
such opportunities. The trip is interesting in that it came so soon 
after the Avignon embassy, while the impression made by that trip 
was still fresh, this being the last of the ItaHan embassies partici- 
pated in by Col. 

Although Col did not play an important role in connection with 
this marriage of Isabella of France, it was to have been expected, 
in accordance with the royal policy, that business relating to 
a given country should be continued by the accustomed hands, 
that Col's name would appear in connection with Isabella's 
return to France after the death of Richard. He was, in 
fact, one of the envoys who were sent (i 399-1 400) "es marches 
de Calais,"^ to meet the messengers of England and ask for 
the return of Isabella of France, the widow of Richard II, 
who, according to the marriage contract, was to be returned to 
Charles VI with a certain amount of her dowry, should Richard 
die without issue. The ambassadors were told to bring up before 
anything else the question of the restitution of the little queen. 
The request failed of the desired response, inasmuch as Henry IV 
wished to keep Isabella, and marry her to one of his sons. On the 
last of May, 1400,^^ new credentials were given to the same am- 
bassadors to meet the English " es marches de nostre pais de Picar- 
die." They were enjoined to insist, before the matter of truces 
was taken up, that the English send an answer to the request made 
concerning the return of Isabella. Of this embassy Col was a mem- 
ber; and although there was some haggling over the return of the 
wedding presents and jewels,^^ they^ succeeded in getting the promise 
of the English King that Isabella would be sent back to France by 
the first of November at the latest. This was not the last of the 
meetings of the French and English envoys. They convened again 

^ Froissart, vol. 18, p. 587, for Instructions donnees a L'Eveque en Chartres, 
messieur Jehan de Hangest . . . maistre Pierre Blanchet . . . et maistre Gontier 
Col. January 29, 1399. L. Mirot, Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique, vol. 19, p. 486. 
Rymer's Foedere. App., A. C. D., Thresor des Charles, p. 66, § 25. Religieux 
de St. Denis, vol. iii, p. 2. 

10 Douet d'Arcq, op. cit., vol. I, p. 171 seq. 

11 Douet d'Arcq, Pieces inedites, vol. ii, p. 273. B. Williams, Cronicques de 
la Trahison & de la mort de Richard II, roi d'Angleterre, London, 1846, pp. 
108-113. Sir Harry Nicolas, Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council 
of England, vol. i, p. 133. 



23 

in the Spring^^ to settle the details of the landing of the youthful 
queen/ ^ and finally to draw up the requisite legal documents — 
which Col duly signed in his official capacity. ^^ Although July 
6th had been the date set for her to be restored to the French repre- 
sentatives, Isabella did not arrive until the first of August. As 
Col's name appears in some negotiations at Leulingham on the third 
of August, it is probable that he witnessed the ceremonies of her 
reception, which were carried out with great pomp. 

The negotiations referred to, in which Col took part, were sup- 
posedly to discuss questions connected with the return of Isabella, 
but as a matter of fact, the whole sitting was given over to a dis- 
cussion of the truces. ^^ 

This connection of Gontier Col with Isabella's marriage and 
subsequent return to France is of special interest to us, because it 
constitutes his introduction into the kind of work which he did for 
the rest of his life. I refer to his role as a diplomatic agent or 
" negociateur " as it was then called. 

By this time. Col had won for himself a certain position in Paris. 
His name appears in the " Liste des Bourgeois notables de Paris a la 
fin du XIV® siecle et au commencement du XV® siecle,"^^ in the 
category including, " Apothecaires, chirurgiens, medecins, pro- 
cureurs, sergents et autres professions liberales." A bourgeois by 
birth and standing, and as has already been seen, in easy circum- 
stances financially,^^ he had married in the bourgeoisie, and was 
personally and by affiliation a fairly representative type of the 
tiers etat which was coming to the fore at that time and which 
Charles V had utilized to instil new blood into the body poHtic. 
The bourgeoisie was " popular " ; it had been so as far back 
as the days of Renard le Contrefait, in which poem it is frankly 

^2 Religieux de St. Denis, vol. 3, p. 3. L. Mirot, Revue d'Histoire Z)i/»/o- 
ma^igM^, vol. 19, p. 500 (March 23, 1401). Instructions to Ambassadors. Thresor 
des Chartes, p. 68. Ibid. B. Williams, Chronicque de la Traison et mort de 
Richart deux roy dengleterre, London, 1848, p. Ixiii. J. H. Wylie, History of 
England under Henry the Fourth, London, 1884-1898, vol. i, p. 13. 

1^ Sir Harry Nicolas, Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of 
England, London, 1834-37, vol. i, pp. 130-131, 136. 

14 Rymer, vol. 8, p. 194. 

15 Ibid., p. 219. 

16 Le Roux de Lincy et Tisserand, Paris et ses Historiens, Paris, 1867, p. 253. 
1'^ Poree, op. cit., p. 21. 



24 

set up as a social ideal. The general hatred of the nobles prev- 
alent in the fourteenth century tended to keep up this popu- 
larity, a hatred that was a legacy of the Jacquerie^^ and was 
enhanced by the defeats of Crecy and Poitiers, for which the 
country held the nobles responsible — not realizing that the old 
feudal army of knights was simply no longer an efficient instrument 
of warfare when pitted against the serried ranks of the men-at- 
arms. The king is offered a hint to this effect in the anonymous 
Dit de Poictiers, whose author suggests that when next the king 
goes to war he will do well not to put too much faith in his nobles : 
" S'il est bien conseille, il n'oubliera mie 
Mener Jacques Bonhome en sa grant compagnie."^^ 

The point that has been touched upon at times, is not to be 
pressed, that the author was proposing an alliance between the pro- 
letariat and the king; yet the lines show that minds were breaking 
away from a feudal conception of life. There was a shifting of 
sociological values, and the bourgeoisie was coming to the front. 

V. — Treasurer and Diplomatic Agent; Banishment 
(1401-1413) 

The period from 1401 to 1407 is one during which Col's diplo- 
matic career was at a standstill. He is mentioned in the list of am- 
bassadors on April 14, 1400,^ but between that date and 1407 he is 
not listed anew. His name is not to be found in Rymer between 
these two dates. 

Col's activity along other lines in this period can be established 
more accurately. He is at work in connection with the finances of 
the kingdom in 1400, to judge by an ordonnance in which he is listed 
as follows:^ 

" Que pour estre a nos conseils, soient dix de nos secretaires qui 
aient gages de secretaires et non autres " and of them '* six et non 
plus signeront sur nos finances." 

18 S. Luce, Histoire de la Jacquerie, Paris, 1894, chap, ii, part i. 

^^ Bibliotheque de I'^cole des Chartes (1850-1851), 3^ serie, vol. 2, p. 263, 

11. 93-95. 

1 Thresor des Chartres, Rept. Foedere, Appt. D, p. 68. 

2 Deleted. 

3 Secousse, vol. 8, p. 417, Item 22, January 7, 1400. (Entry bears on edge of 
paper " De secretariis consiliorum.") See also Meslanges Histortques, Troyes, 
MDCXix, p. 32. 



25 

Col's name is in both lists. ^ The ordonnance in which, under 
date of June 4, 1404, he is named one of the two tresoriers of 
France, mentions his previous experience in this position:^ 

"Que doresnavant ne ayons pour tout nostredit demaine, tant 
sur les Finances d'icelluy comme sur la Justice, que deux tresoriers 
lesquels nous avons nommez et nommons Gontier Col et Jehan de la 
Cloche lesquels ont exerce ja par longtemps bien et duement ledit 
office, et de la loyaute et souffisance desquels nous sommes bien 
informes et bien contents."^ 

It may be inferred that he held this position until 1407,''' when 
he is listed among the thirteen secretaries "pour estre a noz con- 
seils," but no reference is made to any fiscal position. This is about 
the date when his diplomatic activities begin again."^* 

In April, 1408, Col once more appeared in his role of "nego^ 
ciateur." This time he and Casin de Serinvilliers are sent over to 
England^ to continue negotiations for truces begun in September, 
1407. When they landed the king was in the North of England, but 
English representatives were named to meet them, and the truce 
was extended to the last of September, 1408.^ Col's stay in Eng- 
land was comparatively short this time, judging by the safe-conduct 
for him and sixteen persons which is dated the last of April, 1408.^^ 

* For functions and origins of the " secretaire des finances " see Morel, 
pp. 68-70. 

5 Secousse, vol. 9, p. 698. D'Hozier (Bibliotheque Nationale, Pieces origi- 
nales, vol. Soy, piece 7) says that there were four : " Gontier Col, notaire et sec- 
retaire du roy Charles VI, et Tun des quatre tresoriers generaux de France." 

^ Col considered this position an imporflant one, for in his letter to the Pope 
(cited chap, i, note 19) he speaks of his being in the employ of the King of 
France, and being promoted from minor offices to more important ones, " pos- 
tremo vero in thesauriatus officio."'^ He goes on to say that formerly, because 
of the work involved, there had been seven appointees to the a,bove-mentioned 
post, but that when he held it there were only two, and on that account he had 
been much overworked and unable to carry out a number of plans that he had 
made. The whole letter is interesting in that it is the most personal bit of 
writing that Col has left us. 

'^ Secousse, vol. 9, p. 287, § 28, January 7. 

■^^ No attempt has been made to trace Col's activities as tresorier. 

8 Rymer, vol. 8, pp. 513, 515, 517, 521-525. Wylie, Henry IV, vol. 3, p. 99. 

^ Carte, Rolles ii, p. 195. Membrana 12. 

10 Rymer, vol. 8, p. 525, Calendar of the Patent Rolls preserved in the Public 
Record Office, London, 1903-09, Henry IV, vol. iii, p. 485. Rotulus viagii. 9 
Henry IV. Membrane 8 (1408). 

'^ Bulletin du Comite Historique, 1851-1893, p. 92. 



26 

This document is interesting in that it speaks of Ool as being " Con- 
seiller et Premier Secretaire nostre adversaire de France." He is 
again called a Conseiller in the safe-conduct^^ of the party of three 
hundred headed by the archbishop of Sens, who set out in the late 
summer of 1409 to meet the English and again take up the matter 
of the truces. The meeting never took place, however, the French 
Embassy having waited in Amiens until November for the English, 
who never came.^^ It was during this time of waiting that the 
archbishop of Sens was involved in the disgrace, followed by the 
death, of his brother, accused of dishonesty in fiscal matters. The 
prelate's clever ruse to gain his liberty is entertainingly related by 
Monstrelet.^^ 

Paris seems to have grown weary of the non-arrival of the Eng- 
lish ambassadors at Amiens, and decided on war.^* Even then all 
diplomatic relations were not broken off. Safe-conducts were given 
by the English king to French envoys, including the Bishop of 
Noyon, Tignonville and Col;^^ and their meetings resulted in new 
truces,^^ "in terra particularium et in mari generalium.*' In 1410- 
141 1 Col's name appears as a member of a party headed by the 
Bishop of Noyon which arranged a truce for the year 1411^^ and 
returned to France in the spring.^^ In 1410 Col was not only an 
envoy to foreign countries, but was engaged in factional negotia- 
tions as well. The rivalry between the dukes of Berry and Bur- 
gundy was growing more and more acrimonious. It was common 
gossip that Berry was planning to gather an army which he would 
conduct to Paris to see the King and the Duke of Burgundy (who was 
there with him)^^ — a plan that John was at no pains to conceal.^^ 

11 Rymer, vol. 8, p. 593, 15 August. 

12 Religieux de St. Denis, vol. 4, p. 253. 

13 Monstrelet, ed., Douet d'Arcq, Chronique, Paris, 1857-62, vol. ii, pp. 46-47. 
Religieux de St. Denis, vol. iv, p. 280. 

1* Douet d'Arcq, Pieces inedites, vol. i, p. 322. 

15 Rymer, vol. 8, p. 630 ; p. 652 ; p. 659 ; Carte, Rolles, vol. ii, p. 199. 

16 Rymer, vol. 8, pp. 668-674. Monstrelet, vol. ii, p. 96. Carte, Rolles, ii, 
p. 200. 

1*^ Carte, Rolles, vol. ii, p. 201. 

18 Rymer, vol. 8, p. 681 ; Carte, Rolles, ii, p. 202. 

19 Juvenal des Ursins, Histoire de Charles VI, ed. Michaud et Poujoulat, 
Paris, 1854, p. 454. 

20 Religieux de St. Denis, vol. iv, p. 343- 



27 

To forestall anything further of that nature, the King sent to him a 
deputation of "illustres et notables personnages qu'on savait lui 
etre chers, pour le faire changer de resolution"; and Col was one 
of them.^^ The embassy came to naught,^^ and partisan warfare 
was waged by the followers of the two dukes until November, when 
a truce was proclaimed.^^ It was not long effectual, and the year 
141 1 is full of civil war waged by the two political parties. Both 
sides were bidding for English help, but some messages sent by 
Orleans and Berry to Henry of England fell into hostile hands and 
were communicated to Charles VI.^^ Burgundy lost no time in 
making the most of these documents, and civil war was started anew. 
Col was banished as an Armagnac,^^ and had some difficulties con- 
cerning his post, as we learn from the following entry in the " Jour- 
nal" of Nicolas de Baye:^^ 

Lundi, xj® jour de juillet. 

Sur la requeste faicte par maistre Richard Coste et baillee par 
escript avecques lettres de bannissement a I'encontre de maistre 
Gontier Col, qui s'estoit rendu fuitif et estoit, comme Fen disoit, 
avec mons. d'Orleans ou ses adherens, et oy maistre J. Fourcaut, qui 
en la cause avoit ja piega occuppe pour ledit Gontier, lequel Fourcaut 
a dit que piega n'avoit occuppe pour ledit Gontier, ne ne voloit oc- 
cuper. 

Dit a este que la Court oste Tempeschement fait et mis audit 
Coste pour cause des bourses de notaire, en tant que touche ledit 
Gontier. Conseil XIII (X^^ 1479), fol. 207 v°. 

This was soon straightened out by the enforced peace between 
the Burgundians and the Armagnacs, and offices lost through the 
civil war were restored. On the whole, Col's eclipse from diplo- 
matic life was short, for his name appears again on a safe-conduct 
dated October 8, 141 3; this is on the supposition that no documents 
bearing Col's name have been lost.^^ 

21 De Barante, Vie des dues de Bourgogne, vol. iii, p. 172 (ed. Paris, 1837) ; 
Religieux de St. Denis, vol. iv, 343. 

22 Religieux de St. Denis, vol. iv, 343-35I. 

23 Douet d'Arcq, Choix de Pieces Inedites, vol. i, 329-335. 

24 Monstrelet, vol. ii, 236 ; Religieux de St. Denis, vol. iv, 626-630 ; Douet 
d'Arcq, op. eit., vol. i, pp. 24^4.9. 

^^ Bibliotheque de I'&eole des Chartes, No. 48 (1887); J. Guiffrey, Inven- 
taire des Tapisseries du roi Charles VI vendues par les Anglais en 1422, p. 105, 
n. 6. Roy, CEuvres Poetiques de Christine de Pisan, Paris, 1891, vol. ii, p. v. 

26 Ed. Tuetey, Paris, 1885-1888, vol. ii, p. 74. 

27 Secousse, vol. x, p. 24. 



28 

Therefore Col did not take part in drawing up the truces of 
1 41 2, but he is back at his position in the autumn of the ensuing 
year, as a member of the embassy headed by the Archbishop of 
Bourges,^^ whose credentials were signed by Charles on the nth 
of November. ^^ The party reached London in December, and were 
put up at Bishop Langley's hostel.^^ Their stay was moderately 
long, as the truces were not signed until the 24th of January, 1414,^^ 
their safe-conducts not until the 23d of January.^^ 

There was discussed at this time the question of the marriage 
of Catherine of France, daughter of Charles VI, to Henry V. The 
French ambassadors were empowered to treat of this matter, which 
was done; and the upshot of it was that Henry promised that he 
would enter into no contract of marriage with any woman save 
Catherine of France up to the first of the following May.^^ 

In connection with the negotiations for a marriage of Henry V 
and Catherine, Col encountered a diplomatic defeat; he was hope- 
lessly outclassed by the diplomacy of the English king. Col was 
with the party of French envoys accredited to Henry, who went to 
the King at Leicester between the 17th of May and the 2d of June.^* 
That Col was in England as late as the nth of June is proved by the 
date of his safe-conduct.^^ In the course of the same month, under 
Col's very eyes, Henry V was negotiating with the representatives 
of the Duke of Burgundy concerning the possibility of a marriage 
with that prince's daughter, also Catherine by name.^^ That Col 
should not have known of the presence of the envoys of the Duke of 
Burgundy at the English Court at that time seems preposterous. 

28 Rymer, vol. 9, p. 90. Carte, Rolles, vol. ii, p. 209. 

29Rymer, vol. 9, p. 69. Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII, Paris, 1881- 
91, vol. i, p. 254. 

30 J. H. Wylie, The Reign of Henry V, Cambridge University Press, 1914 
vol. i, p. 156. 

31 Rymer, vol. 9, pp. 91-101, 103, no. Rymer, vol. 9, p. 118; Carte, Rolles, 
vol. ii, p. 218. (Date given as January 28). 

32 Rymer, vol. 9, p. 90 ; Carte, Rolles, vol. ii, p. 210. 

33 Rymer, vol. 9, p. 104. Time extended, pp. 140 and 182. Carte, Rolles, 
vol. ii, 211. 

3* Rymer, vol. 9, p. 189. 

35 Rymer, vol. 9, p. 139; Carte, Rolles, vol. ii, p. 213. 

38 Rymer, vol. 9, p. 136; Wylie, Henry V, vol. i, p. 411; Beaucourt, Charles 
VII, vol. i, p. 255. 



29 

Nor indeed is there any doubt that they were there. ^''' It seems in- 
expHcable that a successful negotiator Hke Col should have been 
hoodwinked in such a matter, the more so as he was an Armagnac 
and owed his exile to the Burgundian party, so that he could scarcely 
have been suspected of a desire to shield them through his silence. 

VI. — Embassy to the Duke of Brittany (1414) 

During Col's trip to England in 1414, he was in relations with 
Jeanne of Navarre, widow of Henry IV, and undertook a mission for 
her. Her first marriage had been to the Duke of Brittany, who had 
died, leaving her a son whose guardianship she gave up on marrying 
Henry. She claimed that certain dower rights of hers settled on 
her by the then duke, her husband, were not being paid to her by 
her son; accordingly she engaged Col to go to him in her behalf 
and ask that she be given her due. Maitre Gontier has related at 
great length the details and outcome of this mission.^ The heading 
of his entry runs : 

Cy apres ensuit ce que je Gontier Col ay dit de par tres haulte 
et tres excellent princesse la royne d'Angleterre a hault et puissant 
prince le due de Bretaingne, son filz, en sa ville de Rennes, le XVIII 
jour d'ottobre mil CCCCXIIII, presens a ce son chancellier, I'eves- 
que de Cornouaille son confesseur, et aucuns autres. 

The relation itself begins with a flourish (p. 74) : 

Moult hault et puissant prince, et mon tres honnoure et redoubte 
seigneur, la tres excellent et tres noble princesse la royne d'Angle- 
terre, vostre dame et mere, vous salue de tres bon cuer par vraye 
amour et dilection maternelle en charite non faincte, comme la 
creature qui soit en cest monde qu'elle plus ame et qu'elle desire plus 
a veoir, etc. 

The communication goes on to say that the Queen wishes her 
son to be informed that in him "gist et repose toute sa gloire, son 
reconfort et son esperance " ; and continues with a long, pedantic 
passage, so characteristic of the times that I shall quote it in full, 

37 Rymer, vol. g, p. 189. For expenses of Henry V, " par luy paiez pour les 
depenses des ambassadeurs de duk de Bourgogne" from the 19th of April to 
the 17th of June. 

1 Bulletin du Comite Histortque des Monuments Ecrits de I'Histoire de 
France, vol. iv, 1853 (found under rubric, 1851-1853), pp. 73-93. 



30 

in spite of — or, I may rather say, in order to illustrate — the unen- 
durable lengths to which Col carries a metaphor when once he has 
hit upon it. 

Et ce n'est mie sens cause que ainsy le doye elle avoir en vous. 
Car comme diet le saige Cathon a son filz: "Consilium arcanum 
tacito commicte sodali. Corporis auxilium medico commicte 
fideH " ; et apres dit : " Nee quisquis melior medicus quam fidus 
amicus," c'est a dire: "Tu dois commectre ton conseil secret 
a ton taisible compaignon," ou '' serviteur," et le secons : '' et aide 
de ton corps au loyal medecin," ne " il n'est nul meilleur medecin 
que ung loyal ami." Et mon tres redoubte seigneur, vous estes son 
loyal ami, son loyal medicin, en qui elle a parfaicte confiance et es- 
perance ferme d'estre par vous guerie de la grant douleur et grief ve 
maladie qu'elle soufre. Car comme dist Frangois Petrarcha en une 
sienne espitre : " Ille efficacissimus est medicus ad sanandum, de quo 
eger maxime sperat; celluy est tres efficax medecin pour guerir de 
qui le malade a tres grant confiance." Et pour ce, tres honnoure et 
redoubte seigneur, que, comme dist Boece en son livre qu'il fist de 
Consolatione PhilozophiCj ou premier livre, en la HIP phrase: Si 
medicantis opperam expectas opportet vulnus detegas; se tu actens 
lemire et ropperation du medecin, il convient que tu luy des- 
cueuvres ta playe; pour ce m'a elle envoye devers vous pour vous 
descouvrir et ouvrir sa playe et la cause de sa douleur afin que, icelle 
playe bien a vous descouverte a plain, vous y vueillez remedier et li 
bailler oignement et anthidote salutaire, ainsy qu'elle en a en vous 
parfaicte fiance et que tenus y estes. Et ja soit ce que vous aiez 
piega eue cognoissance et scene la plus grant partie de la cause et 
racine de sa ditte douleur et de sa maladie par aucuns de ses servi- 
teurs et par ses lettres, neantmoins ne s'en est elle encores apper- 
ceue et ne sect se ceulz qu'elle y a envoyez ont vouleu ou ose dire ce 
qu'elle leur avoit enchargie, car par chose qu'ilz vous aient dit ne 
qu'elle vous en ait escript, elle ne s'est point apperceue d'aucun 
amendement ne n'est sa playe venue a cicatrice, ne environnee et 
liee d'oignement medicinal ne nourrie d'uille ou de basme." Non- 
dum nee plaga venit ad cicatricem nee est circumligata medicamine 
neque f ota oleo " Et pour ce elle esperant fermement que a ceste 
foiz elle y trouvera con fort et remede convenable, et que vous vous 
monstrerez envers elle filz d'obedience, vray et loyal amy et medicin 
de salut en qui elle a toute confiance et ferme esperance, elle m'a 
renvoye devers vous, car le saige Cathon que j'ay cy-devant allegue, 
dit; "Cumque mones aliquem nee se velit ipse moneri, si tibi sit 
carus, noli desistere ceptis " ; c'est a dire ; " Se tu admonnestes ancun 
a faire bien et il ne y veult condescendre ne enterdre, s'il est tel que 



31 

tu Tales cher et Tames, ne desiste point a faire et continuer ce que 
tu as commencie." Et pour ce que sur toutes les choses de ce 
monde, elle vous ame, elle ne se veult desister de vous admonnester 
de bien faire et de vous acquicter envers Dieu, envers vostre vaillant 
pere et envers elle. Et quant il plaira a vostre tres haulte seigneurie 
et profonde prudence, je vous diray tout au long son intention et 
la descouverte de sa douleur et maladie soit a vous seul, soit en la 
presence de vostre conseil ou ainsy qu'il vous plaira moy commander. 
Et veez cy unes lettres closes qu'elle vous envoye. 

Col concludes by asking for a private interview, which is granted 
to him — so far as its privacy is concerned — to the extent that the 
duke keeps with him only " son chancelier, Tevesque de Cornouaille 
et son confesseur, les arcediacres de Rennes et de Nantes, Joecte et 
Mauleon." 

After all these preliminaries, Col finally attacks the real matter 
in hand — not without first assuring the Duke that he will say 
only what he has been asked to say, and protesting his unworthiness 
for treating matters so important and involving personages so ex- 
alted. Then follows a six-page speech, which although again inter- 
larded with Latin quotations, is much more to the point. Col 
begins with a panegyric of the Duke's father, and of Queen Jeanne, 
and then reminds the Duke that " la loy dit : Interest rei publice, ne 
mulieres remaneant indotate,"^ and that the custom of the duchy is 
that the duchess must have as dowry a third of the duchy, without 
counting the conquests made since the marriage, nor the furniture, 
which come to her by right. All this the deceased duke under- 
stood and conceded, and acted accordingly, even arranging a sliding 
scale of fines for the non-payment of her dowry. Not only has this 
not been paid, but the Queen has a " caier " full of grievances which 
she sends to her son, whose unfilial conduct she puts down to bad 
advice from his entourage (p. 8i) : 

Car elle me dist en plourant : Gontier, je suis plus doulente de mon 
enfent, que je voy ainsi desvoye et hors de sa bonne inclination 
naturelle, que je ne suis de tout quanque on m'a fait de griefz, car 
je Tay tous jours trouve vray, naturel, loyal, humble et ob^issant filz 
envers moy, mais [ceux] qu'il a entour luy et qui le gouvernent a 
leur guise, et vivent et amandent du sien, grandement lui ont fait 
faire en ce et en autres choses ce qu'il a mal fait et il le cognoistra 

2 Op. cit., p. 78. 



32 

bien au long a I'eur. Je n'en doubte mie, et quant il les aura bien 
cogneuz, il les amera moins et les mectra arriere de soy, s'il est saige 
et bien advisez. 

To turn the duke from his present course, Col proceeds to quote 
Scripture concerning the duty of children to parents. He then 
waxes confidential, and reminds the Duke that Jeanne is only a 
woman after all (p. 83). " Car comme dit maistre Jehan de Mehun 
en son livre de la Rose : Tel avantaige ont toutes f emmes qu'ells sont 
de leur voulente dames." That is Jeanne, if not satisfied, may call 
upon the King of France for justice, or marry either a French or 
English nobleman or great prince, who will come and wreak ven- 
geance on an undutiful son and lay waste his lands. The Duke too 
is a diplomat and answers in kind : " Gontier, saiches certainement 
que je vueil faire et acomplir toute ma vie la bonne voulente et 
plaisir de madame ma mere, ne ja jour que je vive ne feray le con- 
traire " ; and he keeps Col to dinner. 

But the matter stops there. Col can get no satisfactory answer 
from either duke or chancellor. Finally after a fruitless stay of 
fourteen days, he seeks out the authorities anew and makes them 
the following proposition (p. 84) : 

Messieurs, je voy bien que vous avez moult a faire et estes 
moult embesongnjez pour I'alee de monseigneur et de mJadame en 
France. S'il vous plaist, je feray une minue pour vous abregier et 
relever de peine de ce qu'il me semble que mon seigneur le due doit 
faire. Et ilz me respondirent que je disoye tres bien et qu'ils m'en 
prioient. Adonc fiz les minues qui s'ensuivent, lesquelles je leur 
baillay. 

Col's "minues" proceed to enumerate the various moneys the 
Queen claims, and demands the restitution to the Queen's appointees 
of positions within her gift which had been fraudulently given to 
followers of the Duke. It mentions furniture, embroideries, letters 
that the Queen claims. The letter mentioned above then follows. 
It did not find favor in the eyes of the Duke or his Council, so the 
wily ambassador wrote another. 

Col is now genuinely alarmed as to the outcome of his embassy; 
he lays aside all flights of oratory, and his anxiety is couched in 
very simple style :^ 

3 Op. cit., p. 89. 



33 

Et s'il semble a mon dit s' le due qu'il y doive avoir aucune 
moderation, adjonction, ou exception, soit fait a sa bonne voulente 
et plaisir; mais que, pour Dieu, je ne m'en aille point ainsi que je 
suis venu, sens qu'il appere a madame sa mere que je aye aucune- 
ment besongne en la matere pour laquelle elle m'a envoye par devers 
monsieur son filz: de laquelle chose je lui supplie tres-humblement. 

Col can get no answer from the Duke's entourage in reply to the 
second letter, beyond the general statement of their prince's filial 
intentions towards Queen Jeanne. 

Apres ces choses (Col continues)* je vins au due, et lui dis la 
response dessus dicte qui m'avoit este faicte de par lui en lui sup- 
pliant que je eusse de lui aultre response, et que onques, en ma vie 
n'avois este en ambaxade dont je ne reportasse response par escript 
de ce que je avoye dit et bailie par escript, et aussi qu'il me rendist 
le quayer que je lui avoye bailie, signe de la main de sa dame et 
mere. A quoy il me repondi qu'il envoy eroit devers sa dame et 
mere de ses gens qui la eontenteroient et diroient sa voulente du 
tout, quant il seroit a Paris ou en France, la ou il et la duchesse 
venoient, ou qu'il me feroit lors tele et si bonne response que j'en 
seroie bien content et par moy mesme lui feroit f aire la dicte response 
agreable a elle. Et quant estoit dudit quayer ravoir, il ne le me 
rendroit point, mais la coppie en auroye voulentiers, et autre response 
n'en peu lors avoir ne raporter de lui ne d'autre de par lui, jasoit 
a ce que plusieurs foiz en aie fait requeste a grant instance. A 
done prins congie de lui, et vins en mon hostelerie, comptay et 
payay mes despens, et me parti pour venir a Paris. Et quant je 
fu a Paris, trouvay que le due ne la duchesse n'y venoient point, mais 
yroient a "Montargis devers la royne. Je vins audit Montargis et 
ylec attendi sa venue, lequel y arriva le jour de Saint Andry. Et 
yllec I'ay soUicite moult diligemment d'avoir sa response, ainsi que 
promis m'avoit. Et en final conclusion n'ay eu de lui autre response, 
fors qu'il est et sera toute sa vie vray humble et obeissant fils a sa 
dame et mere, et qu'il fera toute sa vie le bon plaisir d'elle, ne en 
chose qui touche les terres et aussiete il ne touchera; mais en joira 
paisiblement et ses ofifieers sens aucun trouble ou empeschment, 
exepte des cappitaines, les quels pour riens il ne soufifreroit que autre 
les y meist, mesmement tant quelle sera demoure en Angleterre et 
que nul ne lui devroit conseiller le contraire. A tant m'en suis venu. 

As has been seen in the above excerpts, the Bible leads with 
five quotations, then follow Boethius, Cato, Terence, Horace, 

* Ibid., p. 90. 



34 

Sallust, " la loy," " les droiz," " la tragedie." It is rather astonish- 
ing not to find quotations from Virgil and Pliny, in view of Col's 
supposed devotion to those two writers. When Col avoids "le 
style noble," and finishes a sentence without using the sign &, he 
occasionally turns out phrases that please by a certain simplicty and 
concreteness. Haureau says of the journal of this mission: "C'est 
une piece frangaise aussi interessante pour la litterature que pour 
I'histoire."^ It shows us Col as a chroniqueur in a small way, 
altho his accounts of negotiations in which he was involved, the 
Journal of 1395, the negotiations with the Duke of Brittany in 
1 4 14, and the account of Winchester Week in 141 5, were not 
written from a purely literary point of view, but were simply the 
report of an embassy, drawn up by its secretary on his return, yet 
thru these reports we may connect Col with the long list of lesser 
writers on matters of a historical nature during the fourteenth and 
the fifteenth centuries. One could scarcely adduce better examples 
in support of that most seductive of Hterary theories — that of " the 
time, the place and the subject" — than are afforded by the writers 
of Chronicles and historical annals in France during those two 
centuries. In that epoch of internal dissensions and foreign wars, 
even the would-be impartial historian was something of a propa- 
gandist for his party. And it would certainly be a mistake to over- 
look the literary merits of those diplomatic envoys who, like Col, 
elaborated on their return detailed reports of the vicissitudes and 
final outcome of their negotiations. Those men acquired the habit 
of describing minor events minutely and putting them in their proper 
perspective. Thus they constituted themselves the precursors of that 
brilliant array of writers of memoirs who are the distinctive pride 
and honor of a later period of French literature. 

VII. — ^Winchester Week (1415) 

During the autumn of 1414 there are no indications of further 
diplomatic activities on the part of Col. The storm was gathering 
across the Channel. Henry was making every preparation for war, 
even while sending over to Paris an embassy, the terms of which 
included demands for so much French territory and for so large a 

^ Nouvelle Biographic Generale, article " Col." 



35 

dowry for Catherine ^ that the conference came to naught, and the 
only agreement arrived at was that Charles would send a return 
embassy to Henry for the further discussion of terms with the 
King in person. This ill-starred embassy set out with pomp and 
circumstance, three hundred strong, including prominent men and 
famous orators,^ among whom was ''M^ G. Col,"^ who wrote a 
Relation of the trip for the Archbishop of Bourges, the head of the 
embassy. 

The Relation is very irregular in style ; some of it reads like the 
minutes of a committee, sentences are inconclusively ended with 
" &c.," and in general it bears indications of haste and incomplete- 
ness. A good example of this is the entry under Tuesday, the 2d 
of July :4 

Et apres en conclusion dirent, que nous conclussions sur la voye 
d'affinite & de marriage, &c. Et nous requirent & demanderent 
en marriage Madame K. avecque tel dot et dotalite que a une telle 
Dame, et pour un Roy appartient, &c. & que nous eslasgassions, &c. 
plus avant que ce qui leur a este bailie par escript & off ert, &c. Sur- 
quoy eusmes advis, &c. & leur offrismes cinquante mille francs, 
outre, &c. Premises les protestations accoustumees, &c. Et apres 
qu'ils eurent este a conseil sur cette offre, retournerent a nous, et 
nous dirent que de la somme par eux demandee qui est d'un million, 
ils nous rabattoient cinquante mil, &c. Et pource que I'heure estoit 
tarde, nous partismes, &c. Et fut dit qu'ils rapportroient a leur 
Seigneur e'en que, &c. Et I'endemain serious au lieu, &c. 

On the other hand, some three pages later. Col gives quite a life- 
like description of the royal reception of a mediaeval embassy:^ 

Item, le ludy, 4 jour de luilliet feusmes mandes et envoyes 
querir pour aller devant le Roy, ainsi que ordonne et appointie 
avoit este le Mecredy precedent, au departement des gens du Roy 
et de nous, et vindrent pour nous querir entre huit et neuf heures 

^ Rymer, vol. 9, pp. 206-208. 

2 Religieux de St, Denis, v, p. 506. For safe-conducts, April, 1415, Rymer, 
vol. 9, p. 219; Carte, Rolles, ii, p. 219. 

8 Hall's Chronicle, London, 1809, p. 58; Monstrelet, Chronique, vol. iii, p. 72; 
T. Goodwin, History of the Reign of Henry V, London, 1704, p. 56; Beaucourt, 
Histoire de Charles VH, vol. i, p. 259. 

* Besse, Recueil de Diverses Pieces servant d I'histoire du Roy Charles VI 
(Paris, 1660), p. 97. 

'^ Besse, op. cit., p. 100. 



36 

les Evesques de Duresme [Durham], et de Chestre et le seigneur 
du Souch; alasmes tout droict au Palais de TEvesque ou le Roy 
estoit logie et nous mena en la chambre de TEvesque de Norebbich 
[Norwich], et assez tost apres ledit Evesque de Norebbich nous 
vint querir, et nous mena haut en la chambre oil le Roy estoit tout 
droit appuye sur un dregoir, et un oreiller de soye dessous son bras, 
et en sa compagnie estoient ses trois freres, son Chancelier, les 
Evesques de Duresme, de Norebbich, L'Archevesque de Cantur- 
bery, TEvesque de Chestre, le Due d'Yorc, le Comte de Houemden 
[Hovenden], le Comte de la Marche, le Comte Mareschal, le Comte 
d'Orsete [of Dorset], son Confesseur Carme, son Secretaire, et 
aucuns autres, et a Ten'tree nous agenoiilasmes, et feismes la rever- 
ence au Roy et puis nous tirasmes a part; et puis tantost apres Mess. 
FArchevesque de Bourges, Mons. le Grand Maistre, et Mons. d'Yvry, 
qui avoient lettres closes adregans au Roy d'Angleterre, lesquelles 
estoient de creance pour eulx trois seulement, partirent de nous, et 
allerent devant la personne du Roy, et luy presenterent lesd. 
Lettres, & puis se leverent et retournerent avec nous dont ils estoient 
partis; Lors le Roy appella son Chancelier, et luy bailla lesd: 
Lettres pour les ouvrir, lequel les ouvrit et sans regarder dedans 
les bailla presentement au Roy, et se retray ; a doncques le Roy leut 
lesdites Lettres, et quand il les ot leues les mit sur Toreiller sur 
lequel il s'appuyoit sur le dregoir, et apres appella ses trois freres, 
son Chancelier, le Due d'Yorc, le Comte d'Oriceste, I'Archeves- 
que de Canturbery, les Evesques de Duresme et Norebbich tant 
seulement et parla a eulx asses longuement sans toucher lesd. 
Lettres, et puis se leverent et se retrahirent chacun en sa place; 
Adonc il appella lesd. de Vendosme, de Bourges et d'Yvry, et leur 
dist qu'il avoit veu lesd. Lettres qu'il luy avoient baillee de par son 
beau cousin de France, et qu'elles portaient creance a eulx trois 
seulement, et qu'ils luy deissent la creance. Adoncques luy expo- 
serent et dirent leur creance par la bouche de Mons. de Bourges, en 
la maniere que ensuit, si comme ledit Mons. de Bourges et autres 
dessus nommes nous ont dit et rapporte : 

This confusion and lack of finish in the form of the Relation is 
doubtless somewhat explained by the letter accompanying it, which 
draws a picture of the physical and mental discomforts endured 
on the return trip by a part of the embassy. To this may be added 
the probable depression of the party in view of the failure of the 
negotiations, and the certainty of a war for which their country was 
not prepared. The letter reads as follows :^ 

«Besse, op. cit,, pp. iio-iii. 



37 

Tres-Reverend Pere en Dieu, et mon tres-honore Seigneur. 
Pource que je suis passe en la compagnie de Mons. de Braquemont 
le derenier et que mes chevaux furent moult malmenes et tour- 
mentes en la mer, apres n'out eu aucun repos, et aussi que ie ne eu 
aucune chose pour payer mon passage au retour, de I'argent qui a 
este ordonne egalment pour tous passer et repasser, et m'a convenu 
emprunter argent et achater et loiier chevaux, ie n'ay peu venir a 
Paris plustost. Si ne sgay si vous feries bien relation avant ma 
venue a Paris ; Et parce combien que ayes en f resche memoire tout, 
neantmoins ie vous envoye par mon clerc, porteur de ces presentes 
un abrege de ce que fait avons jusques au jour de nostre partement, 
duquel jour ie m'en rapporte a vous, et a la response en Latin faicte 
par TArcevesque de Canturbery a la replique faite par vous en Fran- 
cois. Si vous suplie tres humblement de moy excuser de ma demeure 
jusqu'a demain, que je seray, se Dieu plaist, a Paris. Escript has- 
tivement le 25. jour de luillet. 

Vostre hum.ble serviteur, 

Gontier Col. 

Col begins the Relation by stating that the envoys left Paris 
June 4, reaching Winchester (where Henry V was residing) on 
Sunday, June 30. They were received by the bishops of Durham 
and Norwich, the counts of Dorset and Salisbury, " et plusieurs 
autres," and taken directly to the King, to present their credentials. 
He then takes up the events of the Winchester meeting day by day, 
setting down at length all the diplomatic wranglings about Henry's 
demands as to French possessions, and the dowry of Catherine, also 
the date of her marriage. The entry touching the Saturday on 
which took place the last meeting of the envoys and the King, is 
only partial, as Col does not attempt to describe the closing scene. 
Judging by other and less discreet historians, in this he showed his 
diplomatic training, seeing that his report was intended for the 
Archbishop of Bourges, the prelate who was directly responsible 
for the break between the envoys and the King; although in view 
of the latter's feverish preparations for war, it may be doubted 
whether Henry ever meant them to succeed.'^ Be that as it may, 
it is interesting to see how nearly the embassy thought it had suc- 
ceeded in its object according to Col's entry for Saturday, July 6 :^ 

7 Wylie, Henry V, p. 491, n. i ; De Flassan, J. B. G. de R., Histoire generale 
et raisonnee de la diplomatie frangaise, Paris, 181 1, i, p. 192. 
sBesse, op. cit., pp. 105-110. 



38 

Samedy, 6. jour de luillet fusmes envoyes querir, a neuf heures 
devant disner, pour aller devers le Roy, par ceux qui dessus sont 
nommes, et qui autresfois nous estoient venus querir, et nous mene- 
rent en la chambre d'embas, et la vindrent les Evesque de Duresme 
et de Norebbich, et parlerent longuement a Mons. I'Archevesque de 
Bourges, et grand Maistre d'Ostel, et puis allerent a mont devers 
leur Roy; Et cependant lesd. Archevesque & grand Maistre, nous 
dirent, qu'ils leur avoient dit, que on voulsist declarer & bailler par 
escript les protestations que avoient faites Mons. de Bourges, etc. 
Et on leur avait respondu que la declaration estoit en escript devers 
eux, et chacun la savoit ; et puis avoit dit que on baillast & declarast 
jour dedans lequel on delivreroit la fille du Roy nostre Seigneur, a 
leur Seigneur, engeoliee, etc., et la somme de cinq cens cinquante 
mil escus, et aussi que on delivrerait les Cites, terres et seigneuries a 
eux offertes, et que on print une treve a quarante ou cinquante ans, 
pendant laquelle on feist paix final, et se dedans led. temps paix 
n' estoit faite ils rendraient reaulment et de faict toutes lesdites 
villes, chasteaux, et seigneuries a eulx baillees par ce traicte, et de 
ce bailleroient bonne seurte, et caution souffisante, et que on leur 
fiangast la fille par paroles de futur, etc., et que tandis que on feroit 
lesd. treves et autres choses dessusdites, que un Secretaire ou autre 
de nous alast en France devers le Roy, nostre seigneur, et son Conseil 
dire cest appointement, etc., et que dedans un mois il eust la 
responce, et que les autres demeurassent en Angleterre, laquelle chose 
nous ne vouleusmes accorder. 

Et apres ces choses, retournerent I'Evesque de Vincestre, et les 
deux Evesques dessusdits, et dirent, que on fiangast Madame K. 
et que dedans la saint Michel on la livrast a Calais, engeolees etc. & 
avec ce la somme de six cens mil francs, etc., et baillast on avec ce 
dedans le temps la possessions desd. terres, villes et seigneuries a 
eulx ofifertes, etc., et preist on les treves generales a cinquante ans, 
etc. 

Ausquels f ut respondu que le temps estoit trop court pour f oumir 
les choses dessusdites, etc., et que dedans Noel ou la Saint Andrieu 
on leur livreroit Madame K. etc., et quatre mil francs, car plutost 
ne pourrait on finer de si grand somme d'or, combien que en mon- 
noye elle feust preste desia, et conviendroit tout ledit terme pour 
forger lesd. escus, et faire les joyaux, etc. 

Apres dirent celx de la partie d' Angleterre, que nous alissions 
en haut devers le Roy, dire en sa presence ce qu'il luy avoient rap- 
porte et pourparle, et dit entre nous etc., Et ainsi fut dit, accorde, 
et accomply, et alasmes, et trouvasmes le Roy en la chambre en haut 
et aucuns de ses Conseilliers et serviteurs, et son Secretaire, les- 
quels il fist vuider la chambre, et n'y demoura que luy, lesd. Prelats 



39 

et nous ; Et lors Mons. 1' Archevesque venismes pres de luy a genoux 
et luy dist ledit Mons. I'Archevesque les choses dessusdites devant 
les dessus nommes et I'Archevesque de Canturbery; et apres se 
party de ladite chambre, et nous y demourasmes. 

Et apres ces choses, retournerent a nous lesd. Evesque de Du- 
resme et de Norebbich, et nous dirent que les choses estoient en 
bonne disposition, et que nous feissions bonne chere; Et asses tost 
apres on nous mena disner, et estoient bien deux heures apres midy. 

Venismes disner en la chambre de parement, ou le Roy disna, et 
fit seoir a sa table I'Evesque de Lisieux au bout d'en haut, puis 
I'Archevesque de Bourges, puis luy; et au bout d'embas le grand 
Maistre d'Ostel, et le Baron d'Yvry; et a I'autre table Maistre lean 
Andry et Gontier, et apres nous plusieurs notables Personnes, Prelats, 
et autres gens d'Eglise, et a I'autre coste de lad. chambre le Seigneur 
de Braquemont, Messieurs Charles d'Yvry, et les autres nobles de 
nostre compagnie, et en disnant nous vint dire le Due d'Yorc et 
I'Evesque de Norebbich que nous feissions bon visage, et que tout 
estoit bien etc., et m'apporta led. Ducaboireen une tasse d'or; apres 
disner vin et espices; puis alasmes en la chambre ou nous aurions 
este devant disner, et le Roy demoura en son Conseil moult longue- 
ment, et estoit vestu court, et ses esperons chausses pour chevaucher, 
etc. Et apres ce vindrent devers nous le Due d'Yorc, et le Chancelier 
d'Angleterre, les Evesques de Duresme et de Norebbich, et nous 
dirent que leur Seigneur estoit d'accord de tout, fors que du terme, 
mais il vouloit avoir la fiHe et la somme par nous accordee, c'est as- 
savoir quatre cens mille escus a la Saint Remy, et la possessions des 
terres, etc. Et nous leur respondismes comme autres fois que c'etoit 
impossible dedans si brief temps, etc., et ne feust que pour forger si 
grand somme d'escus et faire les joyaulx, etc., mais a Noel ou a la 
Saint Andrieu le ferions, etc. Et lors se partirent pour aller dire a 
leur Seigneur nostre responce, et tenoient fermement que nous 
estions d'accord, et qu'il ne tenoit que au terme ; et apres longtemps, 
qu'il estoit six heures, on nous vint dire, que nous venissions au Roy 
dire nostre responce, et prendre congie : Et quand nous feusmes 
venus le trouvasmes assis en la chaere, et toute la sale pleine de gens, 
d'une part et d'autre, les Prelats d'un coste, ses f reres et autres gens 
de guerre d'autre jusqu'au nombre de plus de mil cinq cens person- 
nes, et y estoient les Ambassadeurs de I'Empereur, du Roy d'Arra- 
gon, du Due de Bourgogne, un Heraut, etc. Et lors feusmes assis 
sur une f ourine devant le Roy : Adonc I'Archevesque de Canturbery 
commenga a parler en Latin, et recita toutes les Ambassades faictes 
d'une partie et d'autre, depuis que cest Roy fut couronne Roy d'An- 
gleterre, comme il appert par sa proposition qu'il a depuis envoyee 
par escript avecques certaines Lettres closes adregans a nous Am- 



40 

bassadeurs dessus nommes, et au Roy nostra seigneur, lesquelles 
lettres nous ne voulusmes recevoir, ne prendre la charge de les ap- 
porter au Roy, mais nous en prenismes la coppie. 

The end is garbled, and there is a hint at trouble in the last lines 
of the entry, rather astonishing coming after the preceding asser- 
tions that the negotiations were going smoothly. It may have been 
a revulsion of feeling caused by this disappointment on seeing the 
success of his embassy jeopardized when he thought everything 
favorably under way, that led the Archbishop of Bourges to speak 
as he did. He had taken exception to several points made by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury^ in his speech. But it was only after 
Henry had again repeated previous demands as to territory ,^^ and 
the dowry of Catherine, ending bluntly with the statement that he 
was after all the rightful heir to the throne of France, that the 
crisis came. 

The Archbishop of Bourges,^ ^ according to the diplomatic usages 
of the times, ^^ asked permission to speak, and begged to be allowed 
to bring to the King's notice the fact that^^ not only was Henry 
not the rightful heir of the throne of France, but he was not even 
the rightful heir of the throne of England. Henry's rage may easily 
be imagined and it is not difficult to understand that he told the 
envoys ''qu'ils s'en allassent, et qu'il les suivroit de pres."^* It is 
not perhaps to be wondered at, in view of the above, that the French 
prelate addressed directly to King Henry the firm request " que tu 
escupres [exculpes?] entierement la response que tu as faicte, sur 
ton seel et signe manuel." And it is not at all hard to believe that 
Col sought to avoid compromising himself by refraining from 
drawing up the compte-rendu of such prickly negotiations. 

» Erroneously called Archbishop of Winchester in Sir Harry Nicolas' His' 
tory of the Battle of Agincourt, London, 1832, p. 28. 

10 Monstrelet, iii, yz • 

Les duchez d'Acquitaine, de Normendie, d'Anjou et de Touraine, les conte^ 
de Poictou du Mans et de Ponthieu et toutes les autres choses jadis appartenans 
au roys d'Angleterre ses predecesseurs heritablements. 

11 Hivier de Beauvoir, Guillaume de Boisratier in Societe des Antiquites du 
Centre, 1867, pp. 87-128. 

12 Monstrelet, op. cit., iii, p. 74. 

^3 Juvenal des Ursins, op. cit., p. 505 ; Thomas of Walsingham, Historia 
Anglicana, London, 1863-64, vol. ii, p. 305; H. Nicolas, History of the Battle of 
Agincourt, 25-31 ; Th. Goodwin, History of the Reign of Henry V, 56-61. Bib- 
liography, Wylie, Henry V, vol. i, p. 490. 

1* Juvenal des Ursins, op. cit., p. 505. 



41 

Before leaving the Relation of Col, we should take account of 
an interesting question raised by Mirot in the note in which he gives 
a resume of the embassy.^^ He says :^^ "Une fort curieuse relation 
de cette ambasBaHe due a Gontier Col et se rapprochant beaucoup 
du recit du Religieux de St. Denis nous a ete conserve dans Besse," 
etc. Since Col was a member of the embassy and the above men- 
tioned Relation was written before the 25th of July, it would seem 
likely that the Religieux was using his old methods, and had seen 
Col's material before writing his description of Winchester week. 
The Religieux seems to use the Relation much in the same general 
way that he did the Journal. The description of the landing in Eng- 
land, and the events of Sunday and Monday, are given at much 
greater length in the Cronica}'^ 

Whatever the reasons, the French party did not return all 
together, the two secretaries, Gontier Col and Jehan Andrieu, appar- 
ently having crossed the channel after the Archbishop of Bourges.^® 
With the two secretaries went J. Fusoris,^^ later tried for treason, 
he having been accused of furnishing information about the politi- 
cal state of affairs in France to the Bishop of Norwich. The minutes 
of the triaP^ throw light on Winchester week, but not very much on 
Col, who was not called upon to testify, as was Jehan Andrieu, the 
other secretary of the King attached to the embassy, and who said 
that neither he nor Col thought of Fusoris as anything but loyal.^^ 

It is not possible to tell whether Col knew Fusoris well. The 
only reference that the accused makes to Col, mentions his being 

^^ Memoir es de la Societe de Paris et de Vile de France, vol. xxvii (1900), 
p. 137, note 7. 

i« Unless the reader wishes to return to the untenable suggestion that iden- 
tified Col with the Religieux de St. Denis — a theory that the mention of Col's 
laical status would refute. (Froissart, vol. 13, p. 323.) 

1- Besse, op. cit., 95-98; Rehgieux de St. Denis, op. cit., vol. v, 516-518. 

^s Carte, Rolles, vol. ii, p. 222 : 

Consimiles literas de salvo conductu habent subscripti, videlicet, Episcopus 
Lexoviensis, Comes Vindocinensis, Karolus Dominus de Yvriaco, Braquetus 
Dominus de Braquemont, Miles, Magister Johannes Andre & Magister Gonterus 
Coll. 

Teste Rege apud Westminster 28, Junii. 

1® Probably the same mentioned in Ehrle, Archiv fiir literatur und kirchen- 
geschichte des Mittelalters, Sechster Band, 1892, pp. 21^220; Bulaeus, Historia 
Universitatis Parisiensis," vol. v, p. 91. 

^^ Memoires de la Societe de Paris et de Vile de France, vol. xxvii (1900), 
pp. 137 sqq. Ed. by Mirot. 

21 Mirot, op. cit., p. 218. 



42 

invited to dinner by the Bishop of Norwich and meeting Col there.^^ 
This was when that prelate was in Paris on the English embassy^^ 
which immediately preceded that of the Archbishop of Bourges to 
Winchester. The evidence against Fusoris was of a more or less 
circumstantial nature, aggravated by his well-known Burgundian 
leanings, and it was on those grounds that the Prior of the Celestins 
in Paris refused to entrust to him letters (to monks of his order 
in England) that Fusoris had offered to deliver for him, but gave 
them to Gontier Col instead.^* It would seem as though the Prior 
scarcely needed any such reason to avoid giving these letters in the 
charge of a more or less itinerant astrologer, going to England as 
a hanger-on of the embassy, ostensibly tb attempt to collect a bad 
debt from a prelate of the church, when they could be carried by 
one of the secretaries of the expedition. Although there is no proof 
of it, it is highly probable that the Prior knew Col personally, since 
the Confrerie of the notaries and secretaries of the King met in the 
buildings of the Celestins in Paris.^^ 

VIII. — Last Years and Death 

Col returned to Paris about the 25th of July, 1415.^ The battle 
of Agincourt took place in the following October, and diplomacy 
was at a standstill until Emperor Sigismund's visit to Paris in the 
following Spring. That ruler was much preoccupied by the Schism, 
which still prevailed, and saw in a union of French and English in- 
fluences a means of ending it. He came to Paris with the intention 
of bringing about a Franco-English rapprochement, and after seeing 
the King and the dukes, he left for England, accompanied by 
French envoys. A meeting was arranged between the contending 
parties at Beauvais (September 9, 1416), to which Col went in his 
official capacity. 2 The envoys did nothing beyond calling for another 
conference not later than the i6th of August — a failure for which 
the Emperor (now in England and a guest of Henry V) placed the 

22 Ihid., p. 235. 

23 Mirot, Les Amhassades Anglaises pendant la guerre de Cent Ans (Paris, 
1900), p. 74. 

24 Ibid., p. 222. 

25 E. Raunie, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 309, and note i. 
1 Besse, op. cit., pp. iio-iii. 

2Lavisse, Histoire de France, Hachette, 191 1, vol. iv, p. 372; Rymer, vol. 9, 
p. 366; Religieux de St. Denis, vol. 6, pp. 26-28; Carte, Rolles, ii, pp. 230-231. 



43 

responsibility upon the French, whom he accused of being devoid 
of a conciliatory spirit.^ 

The second meeting was prepared for in both countries; Eng- 
land sent envoys, and for the French ambassadors^ were prepared 
safe-conducts in which Col's name appeared. Very little was done 
besides signing a short truce, for Henry, who had come over to 
his French possessions with Sigismund for the sole purpose of 
meeting the Duke of Burgundy, wanted to get the French " nego- 
ciateurs" out of the way — not for his own sake, apparently, but 
for that of the Duke of Burgundy, who became his secret ally as a 
result of this meeting.^ 

In spite of this understanding with the Duke of Burgundy, nego- 
tiations continued with France. The death of the Dauphin pre- 
vented a meeting, for which the necessary state papers are dated 
April, 141 7, but which was finally arranged for later in the year.^ 
Col went on this embassy, which proved to be fruitless,^ altho the 
envoys did not return home from the Barneville conference until 
December 21. 

This is the last diplomatic mission with which I have been able 
to connect Col's name. He may have gone with the French envoys 
that met the Burgundians during Easter week, 14 18, to settle, if 
possible, party strife in France, but the name of their secretary is 
not known.^ As will be recalled, the French and Burgundian pleni- 
potentiaries had come to an agreement, and Paris was wild with joy 
at the prospect of peace. When the results were read to the King 
he inclined in their favor, but the Count of Armagnac presented the 
most violent opposition to their acceptance,^ and this in the teeth of 
the Dauphin's defense thereof. This held up all the proceedings of 

3 Rymer, vol. 9, p. 377 seq. Religieux de St. Denis, op. cit., vol. 6, p. 34 
(Col's name not mentioned). 

* Dated August 14, Rymer, vol. 9, p. 377, and good until 14th of September; 
later extended until the 21st, Rymer, vol. 9, p. 386. 

5 Monstrelet, vol. 3, pp. 162-164; Beaucourt, op. cit., vol. i, p. 267 seq.; 
J. H. Ramsay, Lancaster and York, Oxford, 1892, vol. i, pp. 240-241. 

^ Safe conducts, September 24, 1417, Rymer, vol. 9, p. 494; Credentials Octo- 
ber 2, Rymer, vol. 9, p. 498; Extension of passports, Rymer, vol. 9, p. 505. 

■^ Religieux de St. Denis, op. cit., vol. vi, p. 109 ; Rymer, op. cit., vol. 9, 
PP- 517, 537; Beaucourt, op. cit., vol. i, 275, 278. 

8 Beaucourt, op. cit., vol. i, p. 79, n. 2. 

8 Monstrelet, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 257. Religieux de St. Denis, op. cit., vol. vi, 
pp. 228-230. 



44 

ratification, and as the news transpired, there was much discontent, 
the more so as the Armagnacs were arousing general antagonism by 
their exactions and brutality. The Duke of Burgundy saw his op- 
portunity and seized it. By clever manipulation of certain disaf- 
fected Parisians, a party of Burgundians were admitted by night 
into Paris (May 28-29, 1418).^^ The result was a popular uprising 
culminating in the so-called Armagnac Massacres, in which so many 
men of prominence were killed,^ ^ and in which there are excellent 
reasons to believe that Col lost his life. Among these reasons may 
be stated, first, the purely negative one that his name is not in the 
list of burgesses who took the oath of allegiance to the Duke of 
Burgundy in the month of August, 1418.^^ A more conclusive one 
is presented in Sauval's Antiquites de la ville de Paris,^^ which runs 
as follows, under the entry " Du compte de confiscations de Paris, 
depuis le vingtieme decembre 1423, jusqu'a la St. Jean, 1427 " : 

Maison qui fut a M. Gontier Col, occis a Paris, seise rue vielle 
du Temple, tenant a la ruelle au roi de Sicile, laquelle Jean Spifame 
ecuyer dit lui appartenir a cause de sa femme, fille dudit M® Gon- 
tier.^^ 

Tho this is not altogether decisive of the point, it seems war- 
ranted, in view of the confusion existing in the probation of wills at 
this time (especially for those who were on the losing side politi- 
cally),^^ to accept the theory advanced by M. Antoine Thomas, 
that Col died at the same time as his friend Jehan de Monstereul, 
to wit, in the course of the Armagnac Massacres of 1418. 

10 Monstrelet, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 259-266. Religieux de St. Denis, op, cit., 
vol. vi, pp. 230-236. 

11 Vallet de Viriville, Histoire de Charles VII, roi de France, Paris, 1862, 
pp. 104, 112. Ramsey, Lancaster and York, vol. i, p. 260, for bibliography. 

12 Le Roux de Lincy et Tisserand, Paris et ses Historiens, p. 371. 

13 Vol. iii, p. 304. 

1* Cf. difficulties experienced by daughter of Nicolas de I'Espoisse, greffier 
du Parlement (1420). Her husband being in the Dauphin's army, her share in 
her father's estate was confiscated and she had to take legal steps to recover it. 
See Testaments enregistres au Parlement de Paris sous Charles VI (p. 605), 
par A. Tuetey. 

15 A. Thomas, op. cit., p. 81. 



PART II 

LITERARY ANTIPATHIES AND PERSONAL SYMPATHIES 

I. — GoNTiER Col and the Quarrel of the Roman de la Rose 

Like the political situation, the literary conditions were in a 
good deal of confusion at the end of the fourteenth century. The 
chief literary characteristic of that period was the gradual decay 
and disappearance of literary genres much in vogue in the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries, to wit, the chansons de gestes, the romances, 
the animal stories. The aspect of the century is set forth by Paulin 
Paris in this way: "Le XIV® Siecle reclame le principal honneur 
dans les grandes compositions historiques, dans les premieres tra- 
ductions en prose des auteurs grecs et latins, dans les premieres 
etudes de philosophic morale, et economic politique."^ The deduc- 
tion is that this is an epoch of " ideologues," more interesting for an 
intellectual history than for a purely literary one. The ideas stirring 
men's minds were more absorbing to them than questions of form 
and genre. 

It is not my intention to discuss the subject of France's indebt- 
edness to Petrarch nor the role he played in bringing in the begin- 
nings of the Renaissance.^ Petrarch's stay in Vaucluse, the efforts 
of Jean le Bon to draw him to court, his mission to Paris, his 
friendship with Philippe de Vitry, whom he considered the only poet 
France had at that time, are sufficiently known.^ A single point 
may be noted here. It was Petrarch's friend Berguire^ whose trans- 
lations from the Latin are the first productions to show some glim- 
merings of the Humanistic spirit in France.^ In spite of Berguire's 
medieval cast of mind, there is in his works an attempt to keep within 
sight of the text he is translating, rather than to use it wholly as a 

^Cabinet Historique, vol. 8 (1862), p. 102 seq. 

2 Thomas, op. cit., pp. 88-89. 

3 P. Paris, Manuscrits frangais de la Btblioth^que du rot, vol. iii, pp. 180-181. 
* A. Thomas, Les Lettres a la Cour de Rome, 1884; L. Pannier, Notice 

hiographique sur le benedicttn Pierre Berguire; Biblioth^que de V£cole des 
Chartes, No. 33 (1872), p. 337. 

5 Petit de Julleville, Revue des Cours et Conferences, 27 fevrier, 1896, p. 682. 

45 



46 

means of edification, exemplified, for instance, by the interpretation 
the Middle Ages gave to Virgil's Fourth Eclogue. 

The output of the group of translators of Charles V to which 
Berguire belonged, is large, and in many cases smacks of the class- 
room exercise. Yet their work is more than this; its originality 
consists in the interest these translators took in the Latin texts in 
their entirety. They must of necessity have acquired a point of 
view different from that held by those clerics who contented them- 
selves with a knowledge of antiquity drawn from collections of 
moral sayings and exempla. Moreover, it is the first time in cen- 
turies that the human mind is taking on an edge from trituration 
with a purely lay subject, without any relation to theology. This is 
also true, for example, of Nicolas Oresme's^ Traite des Monnaies, 
the first scientific treatise based on pure reason. It is the beginning 
of the laicisation of learning and the intellectual life, and it may be 
questioned whether the Schism did not play a part in this, turn- 
ing men's minds aside from a subject so painful as the dissensions 
of Christendom to seek for solace in matters purely secular. These 
conditions go to show that men were busied pulling down precon- 
ceived ideas and ideals by which they had been living for genera- 
tions; and this explains the polemics and the satirical nature of a 
great deal of the literary activity of the day; an excellent example 
of which is the "Quarrel of the Roman de la Rose,'' which took 
place in 1401. The basic considerations underlying the quarrel 
were not new. The fabliaux, those " revues " of the -day, are full 
of satire against women ;'^ but the chivalric convention in litera- 
ture was at that time too strong to allow anything so foreign to it 
to find expression in the more dignified literary genres. In the 
fourteenth century, with the rise of the bourgeoisie, that chivalric 
convention began to show signs of strain. It is Lanson who says :^ 
" Une des plus authentiques marques de bourgeoisie dans une oeuvre 
litteraire, c'est I'effacement ou I'abaissement de la femme." That 
the bourgeois undercurrent of scorn for women should come to the 
surface in an epoch dominated by their spirit, is to have been ex- 
pected. That there should be so much of it, however, is due pos- 

6 Traite de la Premiere Invention des Monnaies, ed. Wolowski, Paris, 1864. 
■^ For literature against women previous to the Roman de la Rose, see Piaget, 
Martin Le Franc, pp. 28-31 ; also Meyer, Rom. vi, p. 499. 
8 Histoire de la litter ature frangaise, p. 128. 



47 

sibly to a reason of a political (or sociological) nature. The bour- 
geois thinker saw in courtly love an aspect of the feudal system that 
could not but antagonize him. The courtois attitude towards women 
was so thoroughly enmeshed in chivalry that terms of fief -holding 
were used in the contemporary love-poetry. Thus the uprising of 
literature against women may well be an attack on an important phase 
of chivalry, i. e., on the relations of the knight to his lady-love. Ac- 
cordingly, it should not cause surprise to see Jehan de Mon- 
stereul and Gontier Col, with the latter's brother Pierre, take the 
stand they did in favor of the work of a man whom they admired, 
namely, Jehan de "Meung. Nor should it occasion surprise to find 
Christine de Pisan opposing a work that combined the satirical 
fabliau attitude towards women with the critical one of the me- 
diaeval monks — Christine, author of a formal protest against the 
rising tide of literature against women, viz., the Epitre au dieu 
d' amour j^ a work which, as has been pointed out, led indirectly to 
the famous quarrel.^^ 

The outlines of the quarrel are fairly well known. The imme- 
diate cause is said to have been a conversation between Jehan de 
Monstereul, Christine de Pisan, and an unknown (Gerson?), on 
the merits of the Roman de la Rose}^ Jehan de Monstereul, Col's 
friend, was evidently not satisfied with the outcome of the discus- 
sion, for he did not let the matter rest, but wrote to his interlocutors 
to emphasize his points.^ ^ His letter, the first epistle in the quar- 
rel,^^ is lost, and we do not know what were his original arguments 
in favor of the Rose. In Christine's answer to it,^^ the objections 

® Roy, (Euvres poetiques de Christine de Pisan, vol. ii, p. 29. 

10 Roy, vol. ii, p. iv. 

"Roy, vol. ii, pp. iv-v; Piaget, Chronologie, p. 117 (1400-1401). 

12 Piaget, Chronologie, pp. 116-117. 

13 A. Piaget, Chronologie des Epistres sur le Roman de la Rose, in £tudes 
Romanes dediees a Gaston Paris, p. 116, says; " Je ne m'occupe pas ici des lettres 
latines de Jean de Monstereul publiees dans le tome II de rAmplissima Col- 
lectio de don Martene, ou encore inedites." Petit de Julleville (Revue des Cours 
et Conferences, 4 juin, 1896) places three undated Latin letters of Jehan de 
Monstereul (A. C, vol. ii. Col, 1419, 1421, 1422) at this stage of the discussion, 
in which the Prevot de Lille expresses his admiration for Jehan de Meung and 
his works. C. F. Ward, The Epistles on the Romance of the Rose and Other 
Documents in the Debate, Chicago, 1911, reprints the letters without dating them. 

"Roy, vol. ii, p. v, n. i; Piaget, p. 117 (1401). 



48 

formulated are as follows: (i) Coarseness of vocabulary ;i^ (2) 
Slurs cast on the married state ;^^ (3) Incitation to loose living ;^^ 
(4) Satire on women.^^ She sums up her opinion of the evil effects 
of the Roman as follows (ibid.^ p. 2y, 11. 313-327) : 

Mais je treuue, comme il me semble, ces dictes choses et assez 
d'autres considerees, que mieulx lui affiert, enseuelissement de feu 
que couronne de lorier, nononbstant que le claimez miroir de bien 
viure, exemple de tous estaz de soy politiquement gouuerne et viure 
religieusement et sagement. Mais au contraire (sauue vostre grace) 
je dis que c'est exortacion de vice, confortant vie dissolue, doctrine 
pleine de deceuance, voye de dampnacion, diffameur publique, cause 
de souspegon et mescreandise, honte de pluseurs personnes, et puet 
estre d'erreur. 

At this point Col steps in.^^ He writes to the prudent honnouree 
et sauent damoiselU Christine, asking for a copy of the letter 
"que tu as nouvellement escript par maniere de invection aucune- 
ment contre ce que mon maistre enseigneur et familier feu maistre 
Jean de Meung ... fist et compila ou livre de la Rose."^^ At the 
same time he sends her another of Jehan de Meung's works, Le 
Tresor, and in this connection it is interesting to quote what Col had 
to say on the subject of the manuscript of the work that he sent her, 
for his criticism casts an interesting light on the inaccuracy of con- 
temporary texts {ibid., p. 30) : 

lequel est incorrect par faulte d'escripuain, qui pas ne I'entendi 
comme il y pert, et n'ay eu espace ne loisir de le veoir ne corrigier au 
long pour la haste et ardeur que j'ay de veoir ton dessusdit ceuure, 
et mesmement qu'il est a supposer que bien sgaras les fautes de I'es- 
cripuain en ceste compilacion corrigier et entendre. 

On receiving a copy of Christine's letter, he writes again,^^ taking 
her to task for her presumption towards that " tresexcellent et irre- 
prehensible docteur en saincte divine escripture . . . que si horrible- 
ment oses et presumes corrigier et reprehendre."^^ 

15 Ward, pp. 18-21. 

IS Ihid., p. 20, 11. 26-29. 

^'^ Ibid., p. 21, lines 143-159; p. 27, lines 316-322. 

18 Ibid., pp. 22-25. 

19 Roy, vol. ii, p. vi, September 13, 1401 ; Piaget, p. 118. 

20 Ward, p. 29. 

21 Roy, vol. ii, p. vi; Piaget, p. 118. September 15, 1401. 

22 Ward, op. cit, p. 31. 



49 

In Col's two letters,^^ he endeavors to make Christine see what 
he considers the errors of her ways. Christine's reply,^* far from 
seizing the opportunity offered her by Col for confession and avoid- 
ance, reiterates emphatically what she has before said on the point :^^ 

je dis derechief et replique et triplique tant de fois comme tu 
vouldras que le dit intitule Romant de la Rose, nonobstant y ait de 
bonnes choses, . . . mais pour ce que nature humaine est plus 
descendent au mal, je dis qu'il puet estre cause de mauvaise et per- 
verse exortacion en tresabhominables meurs, confortant vie dissolue, 
doctrine pleine de decevance, voie de dampnacion, diffameur pub- 
lique cause de souspegon et rnescreandise et honte de pluseurs per- 
sonnes et puet estre d'erreur ; et tres deshonneste lecture en pluseurs 
pars. (In part identical with extract on page 48.) 

Nor does she stop there, but sends all the documents in the case, 
with an appeal, to Isabeau de Baviere, Queen of France, and Guill- 
aume de Tignonville, prevot de Paris.^^ There is no record of any 
answer made by those dignitaries to Christine's appeal, but at any 
rate there was a lull in the quarrel until May, 1402,^^ when there 
appeared Gerson's Tractatus contra Romantium de Rosa, which is 
cast in the allegorical form, popular at that time. He assails the 
Roman under eight headings, among which are three of Christine's 
points of arraignment. 2^ To these the most important counts that 
he adds are Jehan de Meung's scant respect for sacred things,^^ his 
theory concernig Paradise, and his attitude towards young men who 
enter the Church.^^ Gerson's position is of course easily explained 
in view of Jean de Meung's abundant satire on the Church. 

This time Col did not take up the cudgels for the Roman de la 
Rose, but apparently yielded his place in the quarrel to his brother, 
the Canon Pierre Col,^^ who wrote a fiery defense of Jehan de 

23 Ihid., pp. 32-33. 

2* Ward, pp. 32-33; Piaget, p. 118. 

25 Ward, p. 2,2,. 

26 Ibid., pp. 34-37 ; Roy, vol. ii, p. vii, gives date as the day before Chande- 
leur, 1401 (i February, 1402, new style) ; Piaget, op. cit., p. 118. 

2'^ Roy, op. cit., vol. ii, p. iii ; Piaget, op. cit., p. 119. 

28 Ward, op. cit., pp. 39-40. 

29 Ihid., p. 40. 

30 Ward, op. cit., p. 39. 

31 Ward, pp. 56-76; A. Piaget, Martin Le Franc, p. 70; A. Piaget, Chrono- 
logic des Epistres, p. 119. 

His two letters to Christine, the second only a fragment, are in Paris 



50 

Meung, and sent copies of it to Christine and Gerson. In this epistle 
the Canon tries to make Christine de Pisan appear a prude in her ob- 
jections to the use of certain concrete physiological terms, which 
attitude on her part, in view of the contemporary state of refine- 
ment on such questions, makes of her a '' Precieuse d'avant la 
lettre."^^ Fol amoureux's stories in questionable taste he explains 
by saying that Jehan de Meung's great art was to make his char- 
acters speak in accordance with their role, and that what a Fol 
amoureux said must not be charged to the author's account.^^ 

Pierre Col is careful not to attack Gerson quite so openly, but 
in much more measured tones^^ he answers some of that worthy 
Churchman's strictures. Both of his correspondents make rejoinder : 
Gerson^^ sets forth the point of view of the Church as stated by 
St. Augustine,^^ and discusses the somewhat lax sex-morality toler- 
ated by the Canon. ^^ He showed his distate for the whole matter 
so clearly that it is not to be wondered at that Pierre Col made no 
attempt to answer him. Christine's reply^^ is long and prolix, a 
fact of which she is evidently quite aware; and she makes it clear 
that the controversy is now closed as far as she is concerned. ^^ One 
might think that Canon Col would have had enough. Not so. That 
doughty champion began a counter-rejoinder to Christine^^ — at 
least began, for whether he finished it we do not know, since only a 
fragment of it still survives. 

in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Fonds Fr. 1563, fol. 185 (b) (for XI) and fol. 
199 (Piaget) in Ward, p. 10. 

Fragments of Pierre Col's first letter may be found in the Tours library, to 
judge by the following entry in the Catalogue general des Manuscrits des Bihlio- 
theques Publiques de France, tome xxxvii, Tours, p. 207, No. 28. Jacques Pub- 
licius. Traits de I'art epistolaire, iii, au folio 230v° et 231, on lit plusieurs lettres 
ou fragments de lettres qui ont ete recueillis pour servir de modeles. 8° Formule 
epistolaire empruntee a la correspondence de Christine de Pisan et Pierre Col, 
fol. 231 v° . . . " Et de ton eloquence melodieuse je desire," etc. 

32 Petit de Julleville, La Querelle a propos du Roman de la Rose au XV^ 
Steele in Revue des Cours et Conferences, 4 juin, 1896, p. 544. 

33 Ward, op. cit., p. 66. 

34 Ward, p. 69. 

35 Ward, pp. 77-82, a reprint from the Antwerp edition of Gerson's works 
(1706), vol. iii, col. 293. 

36 Ward, p. 78. 

37 Ibid., p. 80. 

^^ Ibid., pp. 83-111. (October 2, 1402.) 

^^Ibid., p. III. 

40 Piaget, p. 120, note i, p. 82. 



51 

In treating the subject-matter of Christine de Pisan's most im- 
portant epistle, stress is generally laid on her championship of her 
sex, so vigorously attacked by Jehan de Meung. The point must 
not be missed that she also objects to his coarseness of speech, and 
to his advocacy of an unrestricted "moral code." Petit de JuUe- 
ville sums up the matter thus :^^ 

Mais il reste a Christine le merite d' avoir discerne le caractere 
intime du roman de Jean de Meung, qui est dans la tendence de I'au- 
teur a rehabiliter la nature humaine, libre et affranchie de toutes les 
lois et de toutes les conventions sociales. Le roman de la Rose 
renferme les premiers germes d'une renaissance naturaliste dirigee 
contre la discipline austere et stricte du Christianisme. C'est ce que 
les savants adversaires de Christine ne voyaient pas ou peut-etre 
feignaient de ne pas voir. 

The last phrase is a telling one. Freedom from moral re- 
straint in matters of sex is one of the dominant traits of the Re- 
naissance, and this point of view permeates the second part of the 
Roman. It is at least worth while to note that the two men who 
were most ardent in the defense of the Roman de la Rose were : the 
best known Humanist in France, Jehan de Monstereul, and the man 
whom he called his " praeceptor," Gontier Col, It also deserves to 
be noted that Col waxes eloquent against Christine not only for 
defending woman, but for talking about things of which he says 
that she knows nothing and for having the temerity to raise her 
voice when the great Jehan de Meung had already spoken.^ ^ All 

*i Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la litterature et de la langue frangaise, 
ii, p. 361-362. 

*2 Ward, op. cit., p. 29, " Et comme dient les relateurs ou refferendaires de 
ceste chose, t'efforces et estudies de le reprende et chargler de faultes en ta 
dicte oeuure nouuelle, laquelle chose me vient a grant admiracion et merueille 
inextimable, et ad ce non croire me meut I'experience et exercite de toy d'auoir 
sceu, leu et entendu lui ou dit liure, et en ses autres fais en frangois, et autres 
pluseurs et divers docteurs, aucteurs, et poetes . . . pour toy donner matiere de 
plus escripre cont're lui, se bon te semble, ou a tes (fol. 88 verso a) satalices [i. e., 
satellites], qui en ce fait font boutee, pour ce que touchier n'y osoient ou ne 
sauoient, mais de toy veulent f aire chappe a pluye ; pour dire que plus y sauroient 
que une femme et plus reprimer la renommee (indeficient ent're les mortelz), d'un 
tel homme . . . " ; p. 31 : "... t'ay premierement par une mienne lettre, que 
auant yer t'enuoyay, exortee, auisee, et price, de toy corrigier et amender de 
I'erreur manifeste, folic ou demenance trop grant a toy venue par presompcion 
ou oultrecuidance et comme femme passionee en ceste matiere — ne te desplaise 
se ie dy voir." 

See also Pierre Col's letter, Ward, p. 65. 



52 

this would tend to show that Gontier Col and Monstereul took ex- 
ception to her attitude on the question of "les moeurs" as well as 
on that of "la solidarite feminine." They saw the power of the 
Church loosening on certain matters of conduct, only to have sub- 
stituted for ecclesiastical strictures social regulations that imposed 
the same restraints; it was the "Chambre Bleue" casting its 
shadow before. These are not the motives that explain the 
Humanists' defense of the works of Jehan de Meung, whom Col 
admires so highly, and calls, as we have seen above, " mon maistre, 
enseigneur & familier feu Maistre Jehan de Meun."^^ Their in- 
terest in his independence of outlook and lack of subservience to 
the established order of things is well known.^^ They were intel- 
lectual pioneers on certain lines, just as he was, and that undoubt- 
edly was for them the important point in common. 

Another aspect of the Quarrel of the Roman de la Rose that 
ought not to be lost sight of, is that it is the first French literary 
quarrel — a departure from the theological quarrels indulged in by 
the men in orders, who were of course the learned class of the 
Middle Ages. The presence of a woman in such a quarrel is also a 
distinct innovation. The subject-matter itself was not entirely new. 
Reference has already been made to the "fabliau attitude" towards 
women all thru the Middle Ages, and there were undeniably a cer- 
tain number of literary lieux-communs in the quarrel. Canon Pierre 
Col's position, for instance, seems to me little else than a variant of 
that of the mediaeval monk of a Rabelaisian cast of mind who be- 
lieved in calling a spade a spade and was quite oblivious to aesthetic 
preoccupations as well as to those ethical considerations that stirred 
Christine. 

Petit de Julleville^^ does not consider the quarrel a purely liter- 
ary one, but states that it was " aussi et surtout une querelle morale 
et religieuse." This is due to the role played in it by Gerson, whose 
attitude in the matter is wholly clerical, and whose main interest 
was not in the phase that is significant for us, viz., the fact that it is 
a link in the series of works for and against women in France, from 
the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Gerson's intervention on 

*3 Ward, p. 29. 

4* Lavisse, Histoire de France, vol. iv, p. 405. 

*" Revue des Cours et Conferences, June 4 1896, p. 540. 



53 

Christine de Pisan's side ended the quarrel for the time being, but 
the fifteenth century is full of works written from the point of view 
championed by Gontier Col, and some of the most trenchant tirades 
against women date from this period.^^ The quarrel reached its 
full development in the sixteenth century with Frangois Rabelais,^^ 
the most ardent and skilful writer against women of them all. Col 
gives but a faint foretaste of the doughty author of the " Tiers livre 
de Pantagruel/' albeit an ardent partisan of the ideas on women 
that they both shared in common. 

So this oldest of literary quarrels in France not only has a cer- 
tain religious tinge derived from Gerson's role in it, but it is some- 
what prophetic in its defence, by men of standing and reputation and 
who were deeply interested in Humanism, of the extreme individual- 
istic moral code of the Renaissance. Nor is this all, for it also 
is a forerunner (less far-reaching in scope, it is true, although simi- 
lar as to subject-matter) of the "querelle des femmes" which be- 
longs to the history of the literary development of the Greater Re- 
naissance. 

II. — Gontier Col a Member of the " Cour Amoureuse " 

In the light of the foregoing, it is rather astonishing to find 
Col's name on the roster of the famous "Cour Amoureuse,"^ 
founded in 1401 (14 fevrier, 1400 v. s.), that much discussed or- 
ganization which at one time was thought to be an "association 
voluptueuse "^ reflecting Isabeau de Baviere's loose moral code. 
Jehan de Monstereul and Gontier Col both belonged to it, although 
one section of the charter expressly covers Col's attitude in the 
" Querelle." I refer to the following " item," which I will quote in 
full.3 

Item, pour ce que la hautesse d'amourz est inconprenable et 
que tous nobles et autres, dignes d'estre amoureux, doivent parer 

*^ A. Lefranc, Le Tiers livre du Pantagruel et la querelle des femmes in 
Revue des Etudes Rabelaisiennes, 1904 (i® Fasc), p. 5 seq. 

47 Lefranc, op. cit, 1904 (3" Fasc), pp. 102-109. 

1 A. Piaget, La Cour Amoureuse de Charles VI, Romania, xx, p. 429. 

2 Piaget, op. cit., Romania, xx, p. 419. 

3 Bulletins de I'Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux- 
Arts de Belgique, 1886 (No. 12), La charte de la Cour d' Amour de I'annee 
1401, par Ch. Potvin, p. 213. 



54 

leurs cueurs de vertus et gracieusetez chascun a son pooir pour par- 
venir a bonne renommee; d'autrepart, comme dit est que nostre 
amoureuse court et seignourie est principamment fondee sur les 
deux vertus d'umilite et leaute, a I'onneur, loenge et recommenda- 
cion de toutes dames et damoiselles ; Nous, par meure et tres grande 
deliberation, avons ordonne et par ces presentes ordonnons a tons 
noz amoureux subges, de quelconques puissance, seignourie, auctorite 
ou estat qu'ilz soient, sans aucun excepter, qu'ilz ne facent ou par 
autre facent faire dittierz, complaintes, rondeaux, virelays, balades, 
lays ou autres quelconques fagon et taille de rethorique, rimee ou en 
proze, au deshonneur, reproche, amenrissement ou blame de dame 
ou dames damoiselles, ou damoiselles, ensemble quelconques f emmes, 
religieuses ou autres, trespassees ou vivans, pour quelconques cause 
que ce soit, tant soit grieve dolereuse ou desplaisant. 

This also holds good for " Prince, seigneur, prelat, baron, cheva- 
lier, escuier, autre notable homme, quelqu'il soit, puis qu'il sera sub- 
get de la retenue de nostre amoureuse court," etc.* 

The penalty of such infractions is as follows : 

Tout ce que dit est sur peine de effacier les armes de tel mal- 
eureux delinquant qui telz libelles diffamatoires aroit fait en sa 
personne ou fait faire par autres, i ou pluseurs. Et apres icelles 
ses armes ainsy effaciees, on feroit paindre son escu de couleur de 
cendre, comme homme infame, ennemy d'onneur et mort au monde, 
pour sa mauvaistie et venimeux.corage estre apparant aux veans, 
tant en son vivant comme apres ses jours. Et nientmains, son nom 
et seurnom demorroient escripz sur icelluy son escu, paint de couleur 
de cendres, affin que la gloire de sa renommee apparust aux regardans 
estre estainte et mauditte generarryment par toutes terres. 

Alain Chartier^ was expelled from the "Cour Amoureuse" for 
writing the Belle Dame sans Merci, which was distinctly not in ac- 
cordance with the spirit of the above-mentioned " item." Why Col 
and Monstereul did not suffer a similar fate is hard to divine. One 
explanation might be that they were not affiliated with the Cour 
Amoureuse at the time of the Quarrel, a not impossible theory, for 
Col and Monstereul were not members of the C\our when it was 
founded, their names appearing on a separate (undated) list of 
seven members who, as A. Piaget thinks, probably took the place of 
deceased ministres. In reprinting the list of members of the Cour 

* Potvin, op. cit., p. 214. 

'^ A. Piaget, Un manuscrit de la Cour Amoureuse de Charles VI, Romania, 
xxxi, p. 601. 



55 

"Amoureuse from the manuscript B. N. No. 5233 (Romania, xx, pp. 
424-445 ; xxi, pp. 597-598), M. Piaget draws attention to the fact 
that all the names of those who were connected with the organization 
appear here, altho the chronology is somewhat haphazard. For in- 
stance, original members are given titles that they did not bear until 
many years after (viz., 1401), and no note was made of the death 
of members, save in two cases; internal evidence leads Piaget to 
determine the date as "1416 vraisemblablement." 

Moreover, it seems highly probable that if Col and Monstereul 
had been members of the Coiir at the time of their Quarrel with 
Christine, she would have remarked upon this fact. It may even 
be possible that their adhesion to the Cour was a result of the 
Quarrel. Christine's appeal to the Queen and to Tignonville may 
have caused a certain tension between them and some of their friends 
(Gerson, for instance), and they may have desired to give an earnest 
of their present indifference to the woman question by becoming 
members of such an association as the Cour Amour euse. This is 
pure hypothesis, and one really does not have to go so far partly to 
explain the presence of these two Humanists and litterateurs in the 
Cour, altho the question has been raised concerning their presence in 
that Cour,^ for it must not be forgotten that it was not merely an or- 
ganization complimentary to women. It had a literary side, as the 
charter shows. It was founded through the initiative of the Duke 
of Burgundy and Louis of Bourbonnois,'^ and under the auspices 
of the King, to help pass the time more quickly during an epidemic.® 
The literary side of the Cour was worked out with a good deal of 
care. The twenty- four ministres of the Cour d' amour must have 
"experte congnoissance en la science de rhetorique,"^ and they 

^ Doutrepont, La litterature frangaise a la cour des dues de Bourgogne, p. 
520; Piaget, Rom., xx, p. 447. 

^ Potvin, op. cit., p. 202 : 

" Se soient voluntairement disposez de cordialment requerir au roy nostre 
souverain Seigneur Charles, filz de Charles roy de France, sixieme de ce nom, 
en ceste desplaisant et contraire pestilence de epidimie presentement courant 
en ce tres chrestien royaume, que pour passer partie du tempz plus gracieuse- 
ment et affin de trouver esviel de nouvelle joye il ly pleust ordonner et creer en 
son royal hostel I prince de la cour d'amours, seigneurissant sur les subges de 
retenue d'icelle amoureuse cour. ..." 

8 Imitation of the Decameron? 

^ Potvin, p. 203. 



56 

" seront tenus de f aire balade a chascun puy et de Tapporter en per- 
sonne eulx estans en sante et en la ville,"^^ etc. A refrain is given 
out for each puy as a theme for the balades/^ and the huissier who 
is on duty that day is given " 4 sous parisis avec ce pour enregistrer 
les balades de son puy & les nons et seurnons des factistes d'icelles." 
The paper on which the balades were written was furnished by the 
Cour. The day they planned to celebrate regularly was that of 
"Monseigneur Saint Valentin, XIIIP de fevrier prochain venant, 
que les petis oiseles recommencent leurs tres dous chans, sentans 
la nouvellete du gracieux printempz/'^^ From the charter may 
be deduced that this was done for the first 14th of February at any 
rate. They were to begin the day with a mass^^ at eight o'clock, at 
the Church of Saint Katherine "du val des escolierz,"^* which was 
to be attended by the twenty-four ministers, and all those who had 
written balades for that day. Later, the charter of the Cour 
Amoureuse was to be read in public "au lieu et a I'eure que on or- 
donnera," in the presence of "tous noz amoureux subges de retenue, 
& ainsy a tel jour, d'an en an." It was their " founder's day," and 
the members of the Cour were expected to attend, under pain of 
certain penalties,^ ^ " pour venir diner en joieuse recreacion et amour- 
euse conversation, au lieu ou ordonne sera par noz commis a ce 
faire." On that day, all the " amoureux subges de retenue, factistes 
et rethoriciens " were held to write a balade amoureuse on a refrain 
of their own choosing, and to read it in the assembly; after which 
the balades were to be sealed by the " contreseel de notre amoureuse 
court." They were then taken to the " dames telles que on avizera 
pour les jugier a leur noble avis et bonne discrecion, lesquelles 
dames, de leur grace et hautesse, donront deux vergettes d'or, pour 
couronne et chapel, aux mieux faisans de ce jour, et puis les nous 
renvoieront." If any of these balades chosen by the ladies had " vice 

^^Ibid., p. 205. 

11 Ibid., p. 205. Arrangements are made for copying " refrain " and money 
for it is allowed the minister at whose house the puy is to meet (p. 204). 

^^ Ibid., p. 209. Potvin draws attention to the fact that this was Valentine 
Visconti's fete day, which she observed with certain ceremonies (op. cit., p. 199). 

13 "a notte, a son dorgues a chant et deschant " (Potvin, p. 209). 

1* E. Raunie, Epitaphier du Vieux Paris, vol. ii, pp. 261-273. 

1^ " sur la paine de privacion de nom et d'armes cy dessus declaire, ou caz 
toutes voies qu'ilz seroient en sante sans fiction aucune," Potvin, p. 209. 



57 

de fausse rime, reditte trop longue ou trop courte ligne en la balade 
couronnee ou chapelee," they were to be sent back at once to the 
ladies, for them to judge anew, for, as the charter says : 

Prenroient des autres balades les deux meilleures, pour ce que 
toutes icelles balades seront enregistrees en noz amoureux registres, 
chascun an, et ne seroit pas bien seant que la couronnee ou chapelee 
fussent vicieuses, puisque le vice apparoit clerement en ce meismes 
jour.^^ 

The Cour also had a great celebration in the month of May, "a 
tel jour que ordonne sera," consisting of a " feste" and 

diner de puy royal d'amoureuses chancons de cinq coupples dont la 
forme et taille est assez notoire ; auquel puy, on donra au deux mieux 
faisans couronne d'argent pesans quatre unces, et chapel d'argent 
pesant trois unces. ^''^ 

There was still another regularly recurring celebration of the 
Cour d' Amour, to be held on one of the five feast days of the Virgin, 
and consisting of a " puy royal et diner," for which puys were to be 
written "serventois de cinq coupples a la loenge et selon la feste 
d'icelle tres glorieuse vierge." The awards were a " couronne de i 
marc d'argent pesant, et chapel de cinq unces d'argent pesant, aux 
deux mieux faisans ce jour."^^ 

Before leaving the literary side of the Cour, it is to be noted 
that not only balades and serventois were written, but also discus- 
sions, "se aucunes questions, pour plaisant passetempz sourdoient 
entre noz subges en fourme d' amoureux proces pour differentes 
oppinions soustenir."^^ 

The regular meetings of the Cour were held monthly at the 
house of the twenty-four ministers in turn, and if the appointed 
host was out of town or ill, he must find a substitute under pain of 
expulsion, and of having his arms blotted out of the "amoureux 
registre," in which were kept the names and the coats-of-arms of the 
members, and which was apparently a sort of Tout Paris of the 
times.^^ The registre was to be carefully kept as well as " les papiers 

i« Potvin, op. cit., p. 210. 

17 Ibid. 

^^ Ibid., p. 211. 

19 Ibid., p. 212. 

20 For list of members see Piaget, Rom., xx, pp. 424-444, and xxxi, p. 598. 



58 

des balades et autres fais de rethorique,"^^ so that they might be 
shown to those who wished to see them. 

The Hterary side of the Cour Amour euse has been described here 
in such detail because it probably accounts for some of the names 
on the membership list, notably those of Monstereul and Col, which 
seem so out of place in an association bearing such a title. This is 
not, however, the only association of its kind in the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries, altho set off from the others by its distinctly 
literary flavor. Passing reference must be made here to the fact that 
in those centuries were founded several orders of chivalry, such as 
that of Boucicault,^^ whose chief aim was the defense of women, 
and that of the Duke of Bourbon,^^ animated by somewhat the 
same idea. These were all attempts at a revival of the court ois 
attitude towards women, and it seems probable that they were a 
phase of the contemporary woman question. The general attitude 
of criticism of women at that time has already been dwelt upon; 
these organizations were simply signs of reaction against it. 

III. CoL^s Role in the Quarrel between Jehan de Mon- 
stereul AND AmbROSIUS DE MlLIIS 

We have found the quarrel of the Roman de la Rose to be inter- 
esting as showing the attitude of the times towards women, and also 
because of the light it throws on a little nucleus of Humanists. 
Another quarrel, or rather series of quarrels, also illuminating in 
that regard, was that between Jehan de Monstereul and an Italian 
Humanist, Ambrosius de Miliis,^ with whom he indulged in 

21 Potvin, p. 207. 

22 In Livre des faicts du Marechal de Boucicault, ed. by Michaud & Pougui- 
let, Paris, 1854, ch. 28 and 29, pp. 254-257. 

23 Douet d'Arcq, Pieces inedites, vol. i, p. 370 seq. 

1 Thomas, op. cit., pp. 53-54, 64, 68, note i, 83 ; Romania, vol. 33, p. 393, n. 
2; vol. ii, col. 1456 seq. Heuckenkamp, Le Curial, pp. xii, xxx-xxxv, xlv. 
Groeber, Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, II Band, p. 1093 seq. 

Through the kindness of M. Antoine Thomas, who has communicated to me 
a certain amount of unedited data about Ambrosius de Miliis found by him, it 
is possible to trace some of the movements of the " personnage enigmatique" 
{Romania, xxxiii, p. 394, note). 

Ambrosius de Miliis was probably in the service of the Duke of Orleans as 
early as 1398, for there is a letter dated the 22d of September of that year from 
the Duke of Orleans to the King of Castille, Henry III, signed Des Milles, 



59 

polemics over the relative merits of Vergil, Cicero and Ovid.^ This 
obscure Italian Humanist had come to Paris, and thru the kind- 
ness of Jehan de Monstereul, who admired him greatly because of 
his interest in Humanism, became the secretary of Louis of Orleans, 
and subsequently of Charles, his son. Monstereul and Ambrosius 
quarrelled, however, and the Italian wrote to CoP complaining bit- 
terly of the Prevot. 

In this letter, which is rather long, Ambrosius excuses himself 
for not having written before, because of his manifold duties, and 
assures Col of his firm friendship. He alludes in uncomplimentary 

whom M. Thomas is inclined to identify with Ambrosius. (G. Daumet, £tudes 
sur V alliance de la France et de la Castille, pp. 206-207; Bibliotheque de V£cole 
des H antes Etudes, fasc. 118, 1898.) After the assassiijation of Louis of Orleans, 
the King gave him the post of notary, so he claimed in his law-suit tried 
before the Parliament of Paris, September 9, 1415, against Jean le Boursier, 
concerning a post of notaire du roy a bourses et a gages, in which he said 
Charles V " volt par avant ccccix et ce dit an, qu'il fust son notaire, et lui bailla 
gages extraordinaires de 11 1*' frans. Puiz fu absens." (Arch. Nat., X'A 4790, 
fol. 327 v°.) From another source (M. Faucon, Rapport de deux missions en 
Italie, in Archives des Missions scientifiques et litteraires, 3^ serie, vol. viii, 
Paris, 1882, p. 94) it appears that in 1412 he was in Asti, in the service of Charles 
of Orleans, and had been in the service of that prince the previous year as 
well. All of 141 1 was not spent in Italy, for in the spring of that year a certain 
Johannes Dyonisii, epicier et bourgeois de Paris had seized a horse and two 
coffres belonging to Maistre Ambrosius, to liquidate a debt of 18 livres tournois 
hotel charges, incurred by Ambrosius and his family {Arch. Nat., X'A 58, fol. 
134). In 1413 Ambrosius is back in Paris (we are following the Manuscript 
Archives Nat. X'A 4790, fol. 327 v", concerning the law-suit) and claims that 
" et I'an CCCCXIII, le Roy memoratif de ce qu'avoit voeu et des lettres qu'avoit 
baillie a Ambroise, lui donna I'office de maistre Lorent Larin qui restoit forfait 
oudit office. Et encores, le vi® jour de May, CCCCXIIII, lui donna le Roy, 
vacant par mort, et eut ses lettres. . . . The law-suit dragged on. Maistre 
Jaques de Claye succeeded in having adjudged to him the rights of Jean le 
Boursier, and continued the case. The last mention of the matter is dated 
March 17, 1417/8 (Arch. Nat., X'A 4792, fol. 32 v"), and M. Thomas is inclined 
to accept the theory that Ambrosius met his death at the time of the Burgundian 
uprising in Paris (1418). There is still one later reference to Ambrosius, May, 
1417, in the catalogue of the library at Blois (published by L. Delisle in the 
Cabinet des Manuscrits, I, 105-108, art. 47, p. 107), where a reference is made 
to the " Lettres closes de Maistre Ambroise," etc. Pierre Champion, in La 
Librairie de Charles d' Orleans (1910), p. 5, note 2, raises the question as to 
whether this is not Ambrosius de Miliis, a query in the affirmative answer to 
which M. Thomas concurs. 

2 Thomas, op. cit., pp. 53-54, 64, 83. Ampl. Col., vol. ii, cols. 1423 and 1426. 

^ Ampl. Col., vol. ii, col. 1456. 



6o 

terms to Monstereul, and expresses fear lest the latter succeed in 
turning Col against the writer by impugning his sincerity, and he 
attributes Monstereul's enmity to what he calls a puerile cause, viz., 
to the fact that the writer, carrying on his own business with a cer- 
tain personage, humbly but firmly refused to yield to Jehan when the 
latter was bent on some trifle of no importance. Ambrosius accuses 
Monstereul of selfishness, self-interest and greed, and of acquiring 
much wealth by means best known to himself. He indulges in specu- 
lations as to the Prevot's reasons for amassing so much money tho 
he has no family ties, and again refers to Monstereul's reputation 
for avarice. Ambrosius next gibes at Jehan's belletristic pretentions, 
at his reading to no good purpose, and at his desire to collect his 
letters for posterity (it is indeed rather interesting to note that Jehan 
was consciously collecting and preparing them with that aim in 
view). The Prevot's claims as a philosopher and as an orator are 
next commented upon by the Italian Humanist, who notes the fact 
that Jehan acknowledges a certain difiiculty in understanding some 
of Seneca's maxims. The writer goes on to suggest to Col that he 
attempt to make Monstereul mend his ways ; that he argue secretly 
with him at first, and that if this is not successful he try publicity. 

The Italian then writes concerning his own present way of life, 
what he calls " meam in praesens campestrem vitam & ejus quod a 
negotiis superest otii dispensationem tuae deduci notitiae cupio." 
He refers here to his life as secretary of the Duke of Orleans, and 
alludes to Col as experienced in that career in which the writer is a 
beginner. He considers his profession one that offers wonderful 
opportunities for usefulness to the State, and rejoices that he has 
this position as secretary of the Ehike of Orleans, although the 
responsibility is great. 

Col apparently communicated this letter to Monstereul, and to 
Clamanges as well, for in the Lydius edition (p. 31) of the latter's 
works there is a letter written by him to Jehan, in which he speaks 
of seeing "non epistolam sed hostilem potius accusationem quam 
Ambrosius ad optimum Guntherum nostrum de te scripsit." Nico- 
las expresses his amazement that any one should think such things 
of the Prevot, much more of some one befriended by him. Cla- 
manges is also astonished that such accusations should be sent to 
Col, the Prevot's most faithful friend : 



6i 

. . . ilia scrita . . . suis author ad Guntherum tuum inter 
omnes mortales . . . fidelissimum, sincerissimum, integerrimumq : 
amicum mittere ausus est. 

If the Italian did not refrain from such conduct from ethical 
motives, it seemed strange that he did not do so from reasons of 
policy, for his conduct was not of a nature to inspire confidence in 
the breast of any other would-be benefactor. Clamanges considers 
Ambrosius a case for pity rather than for resentment, and that un- 
consciously he had done the Prevot a favour by openly showing him- 
self the false friend that he was. From this point to the end of the 
letter, the writer generalizes on friendship in true Clamangese style. 

This letter is not the only one, on the subject of Ambrosius' 
epistle to Gontier, with which the name of this Churchman has been 
connected. 

In the Opera Omnia of Nicolas de Clamenges, Lydius edition, 
p. 33, Epistle VII bears the following heading: 

Sub nomine Guntheri Colli regij Secretarij, ad eundem Ambro- 
sium scripta, suae ingratitudinis in lohannem Praepositum Insulen- 
sem increptoria. " Justum erat, Ambrosi, si saperes aut boni in te 
viri imaginem, etc."^ 

These opening words coincide with those found in an entry con- 
cerning the manuscript of a letter (attributed to Col), in the Tours 
library,^ which runs as follows : 

3 Fol. 60. Lettre de Gonthier a Ambroise de Miliis, pour le 
blamer de sa conduite a I'egard de Jean, prevot de Lille. *' Justum 
erat, Ambrosi, si saperis aut boni in te viri " ..." in quam partem 
tue habene laxabuntur." Suit la rubrique de cette lettre, '' Responsio 
Gontherii ad sequentem epistolam." 

The following number, on fol. 61, is the letter of Ambroise de 
Miliis that caused all the trouble. It is reprinted in the Am. Col., 
vol. II, col. 1456. 

The two letters are practically the same as far as subject-matter 
is concerned. Both of them bitterly upbraid Ambrosius de Miliis 
for attacking Jehan de Monstereul, and object to the attempt to 
bring the writer into the quarrel, on Ambrosius' side, against his 

* Manuscript of letter listed in Rheims library, number 628, fol. 20. 
5 For text, see App. D. 



62 

close friend the Prevot Jehan. The writers enumerate all the favors 
that Jehan had done for Ambrosius; how he had hospitably wel- 
comed Ambrosius to his house, and obtained a good position for 
him, and incidentally touch on the Italian's pertinacity when seek- 
ing a post. Both of the letters dwell on the fact that Jehan had 
praised Ambrosius very highly and did all that he could to help him. 
Both letters also speak of Ambrosius' former professions of grati- 
tude, and how, far from expecting to be attacked by him, Jehan 
would have expected of him succor and defense, in case of need. 
Nor had Ambrosius hurt himself alone; he had aroused the sus- 
picions of the French, who would no longer be so hospitable to for- 
eigners. Another regrettable aspect of the matter was Ambrosius' 
duplicity, as he had never shown any signs that his friendship was 
waning, and his letter had been a great surprise. Both letters dwell 
on the fact that the Prevot ought to feel indebted to Ambrosius for 
at last putting aside his hypocrisy, and taking openly a hostile stand. 
The letter of the Lydius edition contains two short passages here 
not found in the Tours MS. Both letters refer to Ambrosius' 
acknowledgment that the cause of his resentment was a trifling inci- 
dent, and follow this reference by an exhortation to Ambrosius to 
return to his better self. The Italian Humanist is told that he ought 
to accept in good part what a friend says frankly and openly, and 
that otherwise he is in danger of having no friends, only flatterers. 
The privilege of frankness of speech between friends is next 
touched upon, and the fact that a more or less violent discussion 
ought not to break up friendships but on the contrary renew it, 
quoting Terence to the effect that the quarrel of lovers is the re- 
newal of love, and concluding by accusing Ambrosius of being over- 
sensitive. Both letters also accuse him of wishing, in his attacks 
upon the Prevot's ignorance, to display his knowledge; all that he 
had displayed however was his bad faith. At this point there is in 
the Lydius letter a digression on the dangers of allowing oneself 
to be carried away by eloquence without wisdom, since there is no 
true eloquence without wisdom, and since wisdom does not abide in 
a heart full of gall. Wisdom is then defined, and the suggestion is 
made that if Ambrosius had more of that quality, he might the better 
see some of his own mistakes. Both letters conclude by saying that 



63 

the writer does not wish to enumerate the insults that Ambrosius 
has hurled at Monstereul, for that would take too much time, and 
that Ambrosius' attacks need no answer, as the Prevot's integrity is 
his own best defense, but that if any were necessary the Italian must 
remember that such accusations may well be two-edged. 

The endings of the two letters differ somewhat. The Lydius let- 
ter suggests to Ambrosius that Monstereul has other friends, whose 
answers would have been very different in tone from the above if 
they had received such a letter from the Italian ; and concludes with 
a quotation from Virgil anent the native guile of the Ligurian, and 
warns Ambrosius against making it applicable in his case. The 
Tours letter ends with the warning that if he does not know how to 
curb his tongue and pen, he had best be more circumspect in the 
future in giving them free rein. A perusal of the two letters reveals 
so much similarity between them, that the first impression is that it 
must be the same text. A closer inspection, however, brings out the 
following facts: 

For the first eighteen lines the Tours MS. and the Lydius edition 
letter coincide. This is also true of some twenty additional lines of 
the Tours MS. There are a few passages where the order of the 
words is different, and where some omissions and intercalations 
occur. Passages also occur in which the Tours letter and the one in 
the Lydius edition use an entirely different arrangement of material, 
and as we have already seen, the Lydius letter has elaborations not 
in the Tours MS.^ These elaborations are obviously in the Cla- 
mangese style, and it may well be that the Tours epistle was attrib- 
uted to Gontier through some misunderstanding due to the fact that 
Nicolas de Clamanges had written it sub nomine Guntheri Colli, as 
the Latin rubric has it. The question is an intricate one, but it is 
interesting to note that in Jehan de Monstereul's letter to CoV in 
answer to the epistles under discussion, he quotes the two lines of 
Virgil that end the Clamanges letter, and that do not appear in the 
Tours MS. That is our chief interest in this letter of Monstereul, 
which for the most part is composed of a mass of invective against 

* The foregoing remarks are illustrated by the two letters ; for complete 
text of which, see App. D. 

^ Bibliotheque Nationale. Fonds Latin. 13062, fol. yav"., App. E. 



64 

Ambrosius, of rebuttal of the various charges made against him by 
the ItaHan, and of protestation of friendship for Col. 

While none of the epistles in the quarrel are formally dated, the 
epistle VI of Nicolas de Clamanges to Jehan de Monstereul bears 
at the end, Datum Parisiis. It was after 1394-1395 (A. Muntz, 
Nicolas de Clemanges, sa vie et ses ecrits, Strasbourg, 1846, p. 11) 
that Nicolas was called to Avignon to take the post of secretary 
to Benedict XIII, so that the quarrel apparently took place 
before Nicolas left for Avignon. Moreover, in his letter to Col, 
Ambrosius de Miliis speaks of himself as a raw recruit in com- 
parison with Col, who is a veteran, and makes plain by ref- 
erences to his position in the household of the Duke of Orleans that 
he is speaking of his career as secretary of the prince.^ Ambrosius 
was probably secretary to the Duke circa 1398, as has been said 
above, so that in all likelihood the quarrel took place between 1395 
and 1398. According to this hypothesis, it precedes chronologically 
the quarrel of the Roman de la Rose; but here it has been treated 
afterwards because of its closer connection with Col's literary group, 
whose activities will presently be discussed. 

The role of Col in this quarrel with Ambrosius de Milliis shows 
the esteem in which he was held by the group, and that is what is 
valuable for us in it. Ambrosius' letter suggests that Col has more 
real understanding of Humanism than Monstereul, at least in the 
eyes of the writer, a point of view that might be substantiated by 
the very attitude of admiration for Col's learning seen in several 
letters of Monstereul himself. In view of the lack of more solid 
evidence this is as far as the point can be considered here. Before 
leaving this subject, it may be noted that this quarrel is another 
point of resemblance between the French group and the Italian 
Humanists, who were in practice such individualists that they could 
get along with nobody. A good example of their combative attitude 
is found in the Italian Humanist, Niccolo Niccoli, who eventually 
quarreled even with his friend Leonardo Bruni. The difficulties 

^ Ampl. Col, vol. ii, ep. Ixxv: Supervacuum tamen fuerit, & prope temera- 
rium hujus ipsius vitae, modum ne dicam motum tibi eruditissime vir, explicare 
quam tu jam veteranus miles doceas. Ego tyro rudis ad istam tibi quies & agi- 
tatio, illius tibi commoda & incommoda omnia sunt experta. 



65 

of the later Italian Humanists, the Gargantuan quarrels of Poggio 
and Filelfo, are too well known to need more than a passing refer- 
ence. 

IV. — The Question of the Curial 

In the same Tours Manuscript that contains Col's letter to Am- 
brosius de Miliis, blaming him for his behavior to Monstereul, and 
two letters of the Italian Humanist to Col/ is also found the un- 
signed Latin letter De Vita Curiali, that most critics consider the 
Latin text of Alain Chartier's Curial.^ The letter has nothing by 
which to identify it, save the following descriptive note :^ " Actum 
ambasie die secunda februari anno Domini millesimo quadrin- 
gentesimo vicesimo quinto." The only important deduction from 
the above is that it was written before 1425. The letter has been 
reprinted by Martene in his Amplissima CoUectio,^ with a heading 
not in the Tours MS. "Ambrosio de Miliis ad Gontherum," and 
the date 1435 instead of 1425. Collon^ considers this an "attribu- 
tion douteuse," although it is warmly championed by Heuckenkamp 
and accepted by Groeber.^ The German savant had not seen the 
Tours MS., which he thought was probably lost,^ and so bases his 
theory on the probability (although he admits the contrary possi- 
bility) that the " Ambrosius de Miliis ad Gontherum" heading was 
to be found in the Tours MS., which did not prove to be the case. 
This of course weakens Heuckenkamp's point that Chartier did not 
write the De Vita Curiali, a theory that has been vigorously attacked 
by Piaget^ and Thomas.^ To both these savants the Latin Curial 

1 MS. No. 978. 

2 A. Piaget, Le miroir aux Dames, Neuchatel, 1908, pp. 25-26 ; Romania, vol. 
XXX, pp. 45-48; p. 393, n. 2. 

3 Catalogue general des Manuscrits des Bibliotheques Publiques de France, 
No. 37, Tours, p. 703. 

*II, c. 1459 seq. 
'^ Cat. Gen., p. 703. 

^ Le Curial, Halle, 1899, pp. xxx-xxxiv. Groeber also accepts Heucken- 
kamp's theory. Grundriss, 2', p. 1104, 

7 Op. cit., p. xi. G. Paris and A. Thomas concur in the statement that it 
was not lost (Rom., xxviii, p. 484). 

8 Romania, 1901, pp. 45-48. 
^Romania, 1904, p. 393, note 2; p. 394. 



66 

was due to Chartier's pen, and the inscription in Martene, "Ad 
Gontherum/' suggests that the editors of that compilation simply 
found this letter among others written by Ambrosius and Col to 
each other, and moved by a probability, put down the ascription as 
an actuality. 

Heuckenkamp, although accepting — as has been said above — 
Ambrosius de Miliis' authorship of the De Vita, does not believe 
that the " Gontherum " referred to is Gontier Col. His reasons are, 
that if it had been written to Col, it would necessarily have been 
written before 1395, as Col began his court career in that year. It 
is a little difficult to see as M. Piaget notes^^ why Heuckenkamp 
makes his court life begin with Col's journey to Avignon and disre- 
gards his position as King's notary since 1380. Moreover, while 
denying that the De Vita Curiali is dedicated to Col, Heuckenkamp 
makes a suggestion concerning the "Gontherum" of the Amplis- 
sima QoUectio reprint. He surmises that it is the " Franc-Gontier " 
that Philippe de Vitry had just popularized in his Dit de Franc- 
Gontier — the countryman contented with a quiet existence along 
with a mate of his choice. ^^ This theory identifying the " ad Gon- 
therum " with Franc-Gontier is attractive, but the first lines of the 
De Vita Curiali makes it hard to accept.^ ^ "Vir diserte," as re- 
ferring to " Franc-Gontier," could scarcely be considered apt by any 
reader of Vitry's poem. Moreover, although we have seen that 
the term " frater " was used loosely among the Pre-Renaissance 
group, — an example of which is Nicolas de Clamanges' oft-repeated 
"frater carissime" addressed to Col, — there is a considerable dif- 
ference between such a usage and the fact of the Humanist author 
of De Vita Curiali, calling Franc-Gontier "carissime frater." 

10 Piaget, Romania, 1901, p. 46, and Le Miroir aux Dames, Neuchatel, 1908, 
pp. 25-26. Je rappelle pour memoire que M. Heuckenkamp a tente d'enlever 
a Chartler la paternite du Curial, qui serait I'oeuvre d'un humaniste italien, Am- 
brosius de Miliis. Mais cette these, qui un moment a rencontre une grande 
faveur, n'est plus aujourd'hui sontenue ni sontenable. 

11 Heuckenkamp, Curial, p. xlv. G. Paris refutes this theory, Romania, 
xxviii, p. 484. 

12 Heuckenkamp, Curial, p. 2. The opening lines : 

" Suades sepius et hortaris, vir diserte ac carissime frater, u_t tibi ad vitam 
curialem anhelanti ingressum locumque preparem et in officio curiali assequendo 
intercessione opeque adiutem," etc. 



67 

While there is no evidence going to show that Alain Chartier did 
know the members of the Pre-Renaissance group/ ^ there is also 
nothing to prevent our supposing that he was probably not ignorant 
of their activities. 

As far as sentiments expressed are concerned the De Vita 
Curiali might have been written by any one of several of the Pre- 
Renaissance group, as well as by Alain Chartier. Vitry's poem has 
already been mentioned, and it is believed to have inspired Pierre 
d'Ailly to write Combien est miserable la vie d'un tyrant}'^ Both 
these were done into Latin by Nicolas de Clamanges.^^ Monsteruel, 
in his letter to Col and Manhac,^^ approaches still more closely the 
idea that inspired the De Vita Curiali, Viz., scorn for court life. 
The letter is cast in the form of a vision, that threadbare literary 
commonplace of the period, and describes how Terence appears to 
the author, roundly abuses court life, and advises him to give it up, 
to live in the country, love solitude, read books, etc. All this is 
much in the tone of the De Vita Curiali. 

Here are four men with distinct Pre-Renaissance sympathies, 
extolling the simple life and describing the drawbacks of a court 
existence. The subject was accordingly decidedly in the atmosphere 
among this little group of writers — perhaps as a contrast to the stormy 
times in which they dwelt. Living in a country rent by internal strife 
and foreign wars, it may be that these men felt a longing for a quiet 
life, for an occasion of mental stock-taking — a revulsion against 
the artificialities of court life. Or it may have been simply an at- 
tempt to use literature as an escape from life. There is still another 
consideration which seems plausible and which might explain these 
poems about country life. Monstereul quotes Vergil's Eclogues 

13 A. Thomas, in Romania, 1904, p. 393. 

i*7?om. XXIX, p. 112 sq.; Rom. XXVII, p. 64. P. Tschackert: Peter von 
Alii, Gotha, 1877, p. 353. 

15 A. Miintz, Nicolas de Clemenges, Sa vie et ses ecrits, Strasbourg, 1846, 
p. 60. 14. Descriptio vitae tyrannicae se trouve dans Phil. Camerarius, Operoe 
horarum subcisivarum, p. 61. 15. Carmen de vitae rusticae felicitate. Ibid. 
The translation is also found in Lydius' edition of Clamanges, Opera Omnia, p. 
355. Nicolai de Clemangis Descriptio vitae tyrannicae cum detestatione ac repro- 
batione. Note dedication : Ad Guntherum Colli. 

1^ Ampl. Col, vol. ii, col. 1398. 



68 

as though they were familiar/''^ and to a group who knew and ad- 
mired Petrarch, Vergil's Eclogues were probably not unknown. 
What more natural than that the above-mentioned Frenchmen 
wrote and translated the poems in a conscious imitation of a classic 
literary genres to wit, the pastoral. To be sure, this genre was not 
a flourishing one in France at this epoch. There had been a period 
of efflorescence of that theme in the twelfth century with the pas- 
tourelle, but its great vogue had passed, and although there is more 
of the pastoral element in France in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries than is generally acknowledged, it was found most often 
in the Nativity plays, noels, chansons, and political pastorals; that 
is to say, the pastoral setting was used as a cover under which to 
edify religiously, or to attack, flatter or exhort, politically. So 
while there was enough of the French pastoral influence extant at 
that time to lead us to admit that the Franc-Gontier at any rate may 
have owed to it part of its inspiration, we can scarcely deny at least 
a tincture of the Humanistic spirit to the poems of Vitry and Ailly. 

V. — Group Aspect of Contemporary Literature 

The quarrel between Jehan de Monstereul and Ambrosius de 
Miliis also brings out the group aspect of the Pre-Renaissance, 
for like the real Renaissance, it had its coterie, to wit, a rather 
closely knit literary group with an aggressive cast of mind, which 
we might suggest is one of the favorite means by which France 
puts into motion her literary reforms. This would describe the 
Pleiade, as it would the Lyons School, and could also be used with- 
out too great an extension of the term, to the group to which Gon- 
tier Col belonged. This group also consisted of a number of men 
moved by the same literary ideal, altho the great difference be- 
tween them and the two Renaissance coteries lies in the fact that 
the men of the earlier group were amateurs of letters rather than 
professionals — as were Ronsard and Maurice Sceve. The signifi- 
cance to us of this group as such is briefly this. Bound by ties of 
friendship certain men exchanged letters that are important in giving 

1'' Thomas, op. cit., p. 60. Ampl. Col., vol. ii, col. 1405. The same line is 
quoted in both places, Vergil, Eclogue 2, line 35. 



69 

US information about them and their intellectual activities that is 
available nowhere else. Such a source of information is peculiarly 
valuable when dealing with a man like Col, who was permeated by 
the diplomatic fear of putting pen to paper; whose self-effacing 
tendencies are hinted at in the beginning of one of Monstereul's 
letters, '* Sed rursus peto a te, Gonthere, ne lateas "^ ; and whose de- 
plorable habits as a letter-writer Monstereul complains of to him 
although he tries to defend him against the criticism of his friends 
on that score. ^ If Col was indeed chronically a poor correspondent, 
it would explain the paucity of letters by him that have come down 
to us — rather puzzling in view of the large number of letters extant 
written to him by his friends.^ 

The dearth of letters by Col could not be quite satisfactorily 
explained on the theory of a possible confiscation of his property 
and seizure of his papers, attending his supposed murder in 1418, 
for a like fate befell other men, whose correspondence, or at least 
enough to judge them by, has been preserved for us. A case in 
point is Gontier Col's friend, Monstereul. 

A good example of the value of the letters of the members of 
this group is the " praeceptores '* letter, written to Col and Manhac 
by Monstereul ; although in view of the dates when Col and Mons- 
tereul became secretaries of the King, and in the absence of any 
trace of Col having taught in any of the Paris colleges, the term 
" Praeceptores " is probably not to be taken literally, but is used in 
the same loose way that Nicolas de Clamanges uses " f rater caris- 
sime" in his letters. Moreover, Monstereul studied in Paris 
(though he did not take his degree),^ and perhaps this circum- 
stance afTects somewhat the attitude of the good Prevot. There 
is also another point to be noted. Gontier Col went to Avignon in 
1395 where he first came in personal contact with Italian thought. 
Jean de Monstereul visited Italy for the first time in 1 394-1395. 
It seems not unlikely that he got a glimpse of Humanism, just 
enough to appeal to his imagination, and when he returned to Paris 
and was thrown with his fellow-secretary Col, who had also just 

1 Thomas, op. cit., p. 80. 

2 Ibid., p. 62. 

' Clamanges, Monstereul, Miliis. 
* Thomas, p. 5. 



70 

returned from his first contact with Italian life, and who had 
similar literary tastes with possibly more complete formal scholastic 
training, it is not to be wondered at that he takes the attitude he 
does towards Col. 

Monstereul's letters to Col are a mine of information,^ and show 
that he was a friend for whom the Prevot de Lille had great respect. 
In one of them is found a good description of Col's attitude towards 
learning and scholars.^ Here Monstereul speaks of Col as the man 
who first advised him to study, who inspired him by his exhortation 
and his example. He also refers to Col's habit of taking books on 
his travels with him so as not to waste any time. This testimony to 
his love of books is confirmed by one of Col's safe-conducts from 
the English King,^ which specifically mentions "libris" in the list 
of Col's possessions. Monstereul also speaks of his friend's love 
for discussing things pertaining "ad eloquentiam" (rhetoric), and 
his encouragement extended to men interested in learning. In still 
another letter of Monstereul to Maitre Gontier the latter's love for 
the classics and Vergil is again emphasized.^ 

In spite of the testimony of the Prevot de Lille as to Col's love 
of Vergil, this author is not quoted by Col in the very pedantic 
speech he made before the Duke of Brittany, nor in his letter to the 
Pope, although both contain classical allusions. Col quotes from 
the Bible (6 citations), "Boece" (i), "Cato" (i), "les droiz" 
(i), "la loy" (i), "Grace" (i), Petrarch (i), "Roman de la 
Rose" (i), "Salust" (i), "Terence" (i), "la Tragedie" (i), 
anonymous (5). In his letter to the Pope he cites only the Bible, 
Sallust, and Anneus Seneca, once each. The list is not particularly 
significant for our purpose, I think, save to note the absence of quo- 
tations from Vergil (as already mentioned) or Pliny, although 
there is evidence to prove that Col owned a manuscript copy of the 
letters of Pliny. This information is drawn from a letter of the 
eminent churchman, Nicolas de Clamanges,^^ a friend and cor- 

t* Ibid., p. 37. 
« Ibid., p. 80. 
■^ Rymer, vol. 9, p. 139. 

8 Thomas, op. cit., p. 80. 

9 Thomas, op. cit., pp. 6:!^S- 

10 For his letters to Col, consult his Opera Omnia, Lydius edition, 1613, 
which contains all but fifteen, for which A. Miintz, Nicolas de Clemenges, pp. 



71 

respondent of Col's. The story runs that Clamanges, during his 
stay at Avignon as papal secretary, came to know the librarian of 
Benedict XIII, and that when Nicolas spoke of his friend Col having 
a manuscript of the letters of Pliny and that a copy might be made 
for the Pope's library, the librarian was overwhelmed with joy.^^ 

From the nature of the writings that Col has left us, there is 
little internal evidence as to his first-hand knowledge of the classics, 
and this information must be drawn from other sources. We have 
said that Monstereul tells us that Col admired Vergil; Clamanges 
tells us that Col owned a copy of Pliny's letters. Beyond this it is 
not safe to go, for although Monstereul describes Col as one who 

2S and 27, note 2, refers to the following works: D'Achery, Spicilegium, Paris, 
1723, vol. i; Buloeus, Historia universitatis Parisiensis, 1670; Baluse, Miscel- 
lanea, 1713 (vol, vi). For unedited letters of Clamenges to Col, see Biblio- 
fheque Nationale; Fonds Latin, 3127, folios 2ivo and 36VO, 37rto. 

11 Nicolas de Clamanges, Opera Omnia (Lydius edition, 1613), Ep. 38, pp. 
121-122, cited by L. Delisle, Cabinet des Manuscrits, i, p. 486. While Clamanges' 
letter fixes Col's ownership of a copy of Pliny's Letters, which is the only thing 
that directly interests us here, we might note that in the Catalogue de la Biblio- 
theque d'Urbain V (1369) (in M. Faucon, La librairie des Papes d' Avignon, 
vol. i, pp. gz-^^), there are references to four copies of PHny without noting 
which Pliny is meant: p. 154, No. 694; p. 162, No. 798; p. 163, No. 800; p. 176, 
No. 965. 

However, in view of the following entry, it is possible that both were 
represented : 

Francisci Petrarca, Episiolae de Rebus Familiaribus et Variae (ed. Fraco- 
setti, Florentiae, 1862), vol. ii, p. 182, Epistola V. 

" In versiculis aut'em ad te scriptis quos tarn ardenter efflagitas, scito Plinii 
Secundi consilio opus esse, quem Italia excedens in patria sua, Veronae scilicet, 
ingenti virorum illustrium comitatum acie, dimisi. Hie mihi Plinius nusquam 
est, nee alteri, quod equidem ego noverim, nisi romano pontifici." 

Although it is known that the Pope's library under Benedict XIII had suf- 
fered losses, in the Catalogue of the library of Peniscola there is the following 
reference to Pliny's letters (M. Faucon, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 140, No. 933) : 
" Plinius secundus in epistolas." 

There are several other references to Pliny in the same catalogue, without, 
however, distinguishing between the two Plinys as above (Faucon, vol. ii, p. 128) : 

No. yjz- Item, PHnius in uno volumine. 

No. 774. Item (6) Prima Pars Plinii. 

No. 775. Item Secunda Pars Plinii. 

No. 776. Item. Plinius in uno volumine. 

The lack of exact dates make it impossible to identify No. 933 with the manu- 
script that was to be copied for the Pope from Col's copy of Pliny's letters. F. 
Ehrle, in his Historia Bibliothecae Rontanorutn Pontificunt turn Bonifatianae turn 
Avenionensis (Romae, 1890), throws no light on the subject. 



72 

was interested in original sources, the fact that Col quotes Terence, 
Cato, Horace is no proof that Col has read them in the original, 
although this is probable. The manner in which he quotes Petrarch 
and Jehan de Meung along with the Latin writers and the Bible is 
refreshingly Renaissance in tone. 

Nicolas de Clamanges' letters to Col also show the friendship 
existing between the two men. His role in the quarrel with Am- 
brosius de Miliis has already been mentioned, and it is rather inter- 
esting to note that it is in one of the letters in the quarrel, that of 
Nicolas to Jehan, that there is perhaps the clearest statement of the 
friendship of Col and Jehan.^^ Another letter of Nicolas makes 
mention of Pierre Col, Gontier's brother.^ ^ He also writes to Col 
on such varied subjects as the corruption of the times,^^ their 
common love of books,^^ the plague raging in Paris,^^ and Col's 
troubles during the Civil Wars.^*^ 

From a broader point of view, Nicolas is interesting to us not 
only because of his relations with Col, but because of the stand he 
took in regard to the state of the Church. I do not wish to touch 
the subject as to whether he wrote the De Corruptio or not, but this 
much is to be noted: That it is a product of the period and was 
believed for a long time to be his ; and that such a violent attack on 
the Church did not astonish people into indignantly denying the 
possibility of his having written it. So the Pre~Renaissance like the 
real Renaissance had in it elements that were germs of the Reforma- 
tion, although they were all blended together at the beginning of both 
movements. In the real Renaissance, after a little time, they be- 
came separated; in the Pseudo-Renaissance, the movement was 
checked before any very great development could take place. 

The letters of Monstereul and Nicolas de Clamanges not only 
give us information about the three friends, but also serve to show 
their connection with prominent savants and litterateurs of the day, 
such as the famous Gerson, although his position towards them is 
fairly well defined by his role in the quarrel of the Roman de la 

12 opera Omnia, p. 31, " Tamen inter," etc. 

^^Ihid., p. 1 01. 

^*Ibid., p. loi. 

'^^Ibid., p. 305. 

''■^ Ibid., p. 95. 

IT Ibid., p. 259. 



73 

Rose. Another prominent savant to whom Monstereul has written 
a few letters was Pierre d'Ailly, whose lay interests were not only 
Humanistic, but scientific rather, if I may phrase it so. He was of 
an inquiring turn of mind, but that faculty of his for investigating 
untrodden paths, instead of spending itself exclusively in the search 
and study of Latin texts, turned to astrology and geography, and 
his De Imagine Mundi was the result of this work.^^ It would fall 
quite outside of my province to discuss the question as to how much 
of an inspiration Ailly's work proved to be to Columbus in his ex- 
plorations. This much is sure, the discoverer of the New World 
owned a copy of the De Imagine Mundi,^^ and quoted Ailly's 
work.^^ In addition to the geographical interest which was a promi- 
nent factor of the real Renaissance, Ailly is significant from still 
another point of view, i. e., as a writer of mystic poetry.^^ Among 
his works are Le livre du Rossignolet, which has been called a 
"chant de mystique amour,"^^ la piteuse Complainte et Oraison 
devote de humaine creature qui de I'estat de peche nouvellement a 
Dieu veut retourner, and Le Jar din amour eux de Vdme devote, 
which was printed in Lyons between 15 15 and 1527.^^ The element 
of mysticism in the works of Marguerite de Navarre and of the 
School of Lyons, which is known to all, shows still another bond 
between the false and the true Renaissance. 

In spite of their interest in the classics and the sciences, how- 
ever, Ailly and Gerson must be regarded as thoroughgoing theo- 
logians, too deeply steeped in mediaeval traditions and too busy 
with the Schism to be considered forerunners of the Renaissance 
on the purely literary side. 

Philippe de Vitry has already been mentioned, but it is a little 
difidcult to define his personal relations to the three friends, in view 

^s C. Guignebert, De imagine Mundi ceterisque Petri de Alliaco geographicis 
opusculis, Paris, 1902. 

19 H. Harrisse, Fernand Colomh, sa vie, ses oeuvres, Paris, 1872, pp. 88, 
119, 170. 

20 A. de Humboldt, Examen critique de I'histoire de la geographie du nou- 
veau continent, etc., i, 60-70, 76-83. 

21 L. Salembier, Les oouvres frangaises du Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, eveque 
de Cambrai, Revue de Lille, Decembre, 1906. 

22 Ibid., p. 200. 

23 J, Babelon, La Biblioth^que Frangaise de Fernand Colomb, Paris, 1913, 
pp. 92 and 93. 



74 

of the paucity of material.^^ It is easy to take Philippe de.Vitry 
as an example of the mutations of reputation, for few writers have 
been the subject of such varied statements and corrections.^^ This 
poet, whom Petrarch addressed as "Tu poeta nunc unicus Galli- 
arum,"^^ is represented to us by the Dit de Franc-Gontier already 
mentioned and by the Chapel des fleurs de lis. He was long con- 
sidered the author of that interminable Ovide moralise now ascribed 
to Chrestien Legouis de S*®-More.^''' 

There are a number of contemporaries of Col who had no per- 
sonal relations with him that have left any trace, although some 
corresponded with Monster eul and it seems not out of place to men- 
tion a few of them here, inasmuch as they were very representative 
of this epoch. I have in mind first of all the group of translators. 
Passing reference has already been made to the fact that, although 
the translators of Charles V (with whom must also be counted those 
of the Dukes of Berry, Burgundy and Orleans) had by no means 
the point of view of the modern scholar towards their text, neither 
was theirs wholly that of the mediaeval clerc. Their attitude on 
the linguistic side may not be devoid of interest. Let me quote 
Brunot :^^ 

Au XIIP siecle, si considerable que soit le nomibre des termes 
empruntes au latin, si conscients meme que puissent etre certains 
emprunts, on ne voit point d'effort systematique pour naturaliser des 
mots latins. 

Or c'est la ce qui caracterise les latiniseurs de I'epoque nouvelle 
(fourteenth and fifteenth centuries). A tort ou a raison, soit 
eblouissement des chefs-d'oeuvre qui leur sont reveles, soit paresse 
d'esprit et incapacite d'utiliser les ressources dont leur vulgaire dis- 
pose, ils se sentent incapables de Tadapter a des besoins nouveaux 
et ils le declarent. Ils ont desormais une doctrine, et un systeme.^^ 

24 A. Thomas, Les lettres a la cour des Papes, Rome, 1884, pp. 5^59- 

^^ Romania, xxvii, pp. 55-92. A. Piaget, Le Chapel des fleurs de lis de 
Philippe de Vitry. 

26 p. Paris, Manuscrits frangais de la Bihliotheque du Roi, iii, 180-181. 

^"^ Romania, x, 455. B. Haureau, Memoire sur un commentaire des meta- 
morphoses d'Ovide in Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions et Belle s-Lettres, 
vol. XXX, Part ii, pp. 52-53- 

28 Histoire de la langue frangaise des origines a 1900, Paris, 1905, vol. i, pp. 
515-517. For mention of Pre-Renaissance group, Jehan de Monstereul, Gontier 
Col, pp. 525-526; Petit de Julleville, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 541. 

29 Op. cit., vol. i, p. 518. 



75 

The systematic enriching of the language was also the end and 
aim of the Pleiade on the linguistic side, although theirs was a much 
broader programme than that of the translators of Charles V. It 
is also worth noting the fourteenth and fifteenth century opinion as 
to the role of the translator in developing literature, in view of the 
importance of the Renaissance translators, who can not be disre- 
garded when the literature of the sixteenth century is studied. The 
results of the systematic vocabulary-building with Latin material 
are undeniable. Brunot says :^^ " Le nombre de mots latins intro- 
duits a cette epoque ne saurait etre determine, meme par approxima- 
tion " . . . " Dans Tensemble toutefois il restera certainement acquis 
que importation s'est alors fait en masse." This is significant, for 
it shows certain of the aims and results obtained by the Pre- 
Renaissance on the linguistic side to have been shared by the Pleiade. 
Herein lies their importance for us. 

The first two translators of the fourteenth century in point of 
time, Oresme and Berguire, seem to have had no connection with 
our group, but mention mi^ht be made of Laurent de Premierfait, 
who, it will be remembered, remonstrated with the Prevot de Lille 
when that worthy had the laws of Lycurgus carved on the front of 
his house, and accused him of Paganism. Monstereul treated this 
charge with little seriousness. He thanked his friend for his good 
advice, but had no hesitation about stating that his interests leaned 
to mundane things rather than to sacred ones.^^ This attitude is 
quite Renaissance in tone; it involves the "separation of Faith and 
Reason,"^^ which was logically worked out in Pomponio Lato. 
Without, indeed, going quite so far afield, Monstereul's own con- 
temporary, Coluccio Salutato, said that the Bible was only poetry, 
in parts, and he cited the poetic books of the Scriptures to defend 
his stand concerning the reading of the pagan poets. ^^ 

This incident shows that Monstereul's point of view reflected 
some of the Paganism of the Italian Humanists. It will be noted 
that Col left no similar trace of incipient tendencies. The point has 

30 Op. cit., vol. i, p. 518. 
^'^ Ampl. Col, vol. ii, col. 1409, No. xlvii. 

32 Revue des Cours et Conferences, May 21, 1896, p. 447 ; Petit de Julleville, 
Jean de Montreuil. 

^^Epistolario di Coluccio 5'a/Mfafi',Roma,i896(ed.Novati), vol. iii, pp. 541-542. 



76 

been raised by Hauvette as to whether the Laurent de Premier fait 
of the Lycurgus incident can be the one who translated Boccacio's 
De casibus virorum illustrihus, and the Decamerone into French. He 
explains the problem by positing two distinct sides to Premierfait's 
nature,^* interpreting him as an interesting type of a transitional 
man, with all the contradictions so frequently found in a transitional 
epoch, to wit, that of a member of the Church of Rome who did 
not hesitate to translate the De earner one, and yet of one who called 
a friend to account for his fondness for Lycurgus, on the ground 
that it was too secular. Of course, this is a case of the mote and 
the beam, but it admirably illustrates the subsequent Renaissance 
struggle between love for divine and profane interests, and as such 
appeals to us. 

The first translator of the Decamerone into French is also an 
innovator in a small way, for he was one of the first to translate a 
book written in a modern tongue, although his method of doing so 
is mediaeval enough to warrant attention being drawn to it. As 
Laurent de Premier fait did not know Italian, he took a collaborator, 
an Italian monk, who translated the Decamerone into Latin, and Lau- 
rent translated the Latin version into French. ^^ This probably did not 
seem at all questionable to a century that had translated a number of 
Greek texts, not from the original, but from the Latin transla- 
tions and modern scholarship has been skeptical of the claims put 
forward that Guillaume Fillastre knew that language,^^ since not 

34 Hauvette, De Laurentio de Primofato, p. 29 : 

"Laurentium de Primofato cum Laurentio Joannis adversario aequari posse 
vix credibile arbitramur. Non tamen de duobus distinctis Laurentiis agi confi- 
denter asseverare audemus ; hoc saltern confirmari posse nobis videtur : si 
Laurentius unus et idem est qui M. Tullii, Aristotelis et praesertim Boccacii opera 
transtulit, sacrorumque studiorum causam adversus paganae antiquitatis f autores 
oravit, fateri debemus duos homines, duas indoles, duas mentes in uno corpora 
exstitisse." 

The only good argument against this theory is one brought forward by 
Hauvette himself, viz., that in view of the flippant tone of Jean de Monstereul's 
letter to Laurent de Premierfait, it is improbable that he (J. de M.) would let 
slip such an excellent " tu quoque " as that afforded by a mention of Laurent 
de Premierfait's translations of Boccacio. 

35 Hauvette, op. cit., pp. 66-67. 

36 Thomas, op. cit., pp. 81-82. L. Delaruelle, G. Bude, Paris, 1907, p. 5 : 

" On trouve en tete d'une traduction du Phedon, qui est a la bibliotheque de 
Rheims, une lettre de Filiastre au chapitre de Reims pour qui il avait fait 
executer le ms. {Catalogue General des Manuscrits, xxxix, i* Partie, p. 171-) 



77 

a Greek MS. is found in this library of Rheims, which contains a 
number of his MSS. His interest in antiquity was pronounced, 
however, and that is what gave rise to the idea that he was a Hel- 
lenist. He had an inquiring turn of mind, and classical antiquity 
was not alone in holding his attention. He had an interest in the 
sciences of mathematics and geography, and his work in the last- 
named subject would have made its mark,^^ had it not been com- 
pletely cast in the shade by the geographic works of his brilliant 
friend and contemporary, Pierre d'Ailly. 

Passing mention may also be made of Jean Courtecuisse,^^ trans- 
lator of the Traite des Quatre Vertus, who with Jacques de Novion 
took Monstereul's side in his quarrel with Ambrosius de Miliis.^^ 

When the Pre-Renaissance movement is viewed in its general 
aspects, it is interesting to note the number of points it has in com- 
mon with the Renaissance proper. The most striking is the influ- 
ence of Humanistic Italy through its well-known men, through the 
presence of its less well-known Humanists in Paris, and through 
trips into Italy undertaken by Frenchmen with scholarly training. 
To this may be added the role of the literary coterie in the develop- 
ment of both the Pre-Renaissance, and the Renaissance proper. 
In fact, the group to which Col belonged might well be compared 
without stretching a point to the literary groups of the sixteenth 
century. Other points common to the two movements are, the 
activity of the schoofof translators, and the movement for the con- 
scious enrichment of the vocabulary. The writers on mysticism in 
the sixteenth century remind us that the Pre-Renaissance had 
Pierre d'Ailly and Jean Gerson, while in an entirely different field 
Christine de Pisan's role in contemporary letters is a faint forecast 
of the role of the sixteenth century woman in literature. 

To these purely literary resemblances between the Pre-Renais- 
sance and the Renaissance proper might be added other points in 
common that are not primarily of a literary character. A case in 

C'est la . . . ce qui a donne lieu a la tradition ... qui constitue une erreur 
evidente. Parmi tous les livres de Filiastre qu'a recueillis la bibliot'heque de 
Reims il n'y a pas un seul ms. grec." 

*^ R. Thomassy, Guillaume Filiastre considere comme geographe, Paris, 1842. 

88 A. Coville, Recherches sur Jean Courtecuisse et ses ceuvres oratoires, in 
Bibliotheque de l'£cole des Charles, No. 65 (1904), pp. 469-529. 

89 Thomas, op. cit., p. 83. 



78 

point would be the desire for reform within the fold of the Roman 
Catholic Church, set forth by such men as Nicolas de Clamanges 
and Jean Gerson in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a move- 
ment that had its parallel in the sixteenth century, and eventually led 
to the Reformation and the Counter-Reform. In still another field 
certain activities of the Pre-Renaissance foreshadow the real 
Renaissance. I refer to certain theoretical writings, such as those 
of Pierre d'Ailly, on various physical aspects of the earth, which 
were the liz/re de chevet of that master of experimental geography, 
Christopher Columbus. 

It will be seen from the foregoing that traces of some of the 
dominant literary tendencies of the sixteenth century may be found 
in French literature at the end of the fourteenth and at the begin- 
ning of the fifteenth centuries. 

VI. — The Role of the "Negociateur'-' in the Early 
Renaissance 

Gontier Col and Jehan de Monstereul were " negociateurs," i. e., 
diplomatic agents, and by reason of their position came in contact 
with foreign life. It was while on a diplomatic mission to Avignon 
in 1395 and to Florence in 1396, that Col had an opportunity to 
come into personal contact with Italian thought. Monstereul also 
went to Italy in his official capacity about this time (1394-1395).^ 
The imagination of both men was apparently fired by the new spirit 
that was permeating contemporary Transalpine thought. Col, in 
the course of his life, devoted his energies mainly to English em- 
bassies, and the fiscal matters of the kingdom; but Jehan de Mons- 
tereul went to Avignon in 1404, and to Rome in 141 2. During the 
last-named trip he came to know the Early Renaissance Italian men 
of letters, such as Coluccio Salutato, Leonardo Aretino, Niccolo 
Niccoli.^ 

That Col and Monstereul were of such a cast of mind that they 
would have caught some spark of Humanism even if they had never 
come in personal contact with Italian life, seems improbable. It is 
Jean de Monstereul, the one of the two friends who had made a stay 

1 Thomas, op. cit., pp. 9 and 89. 

2 Ihid., pp. 10 and 12. 



79 

in Italy and had known the Italian men of letters, who was the real 
Humanist, for Col is left far behind by his friend on this score, and 
Col's importance is rather that of the " enlightened amateur," who 
encourages by his interest and by his discerning praise or criticism. 
Both his knowledge and that of Monstereul of matters Italian 
was brought about thru their diplomatic careers. The role of 
diplomacy in spreading the Humanistic spirit is therefore to be 
noted ; the more so that Col and Monstereul were not primarily liter- 
ary men, but intellectuals of the day, with minds alert to new ideas 
and a new outlook on life. 

In this connection it might not be devoid of interest to note that 
diplomacy was responsible for Petrarch's visit to Paris in 1361, and 
although he had established friendly relations with Frenchmen dur- 
ing his stay at Vaucluse — notably with Berguire^ — it was after this 
embassy that Jean le Bon tried to induce the Italian poet to come to 
his court, ^ and his stay apparently made an undeniable impression on 
the French court.^ Nor was this true only of France at this time. 
The same phenomenon may be observed in contemporary England 
where there were also men whose position as diplomats opened to 
them mental vistas that they might not have known otherwise. 
Chaucer is perhaps the most eminent example. 

Altogether it seems plausible that these " negociateurs " played 
a role in bringing Humanism into France by reason of the life they 
led. Doors that would have been closed to the average foreign 
traveler were opened to them thru their official position, and men 
with their tastes and eagerness for antiquity were keenly alive to 
all the advantages that their profession threw in their way. 

VII. — Conclusion 

In the light of what has gone before concerning Col and the 
Pre-Renaissance group in France at the end of the fourteenth cen- 
tury and the beginning of the fifteenth, the following salient points 
are conspicuous. Col, like some of the contemporary Italian 
Humanists and in contrast with the second generation of Humanists, 
was not first and foremost a professional man of letters. He was 

^ Ibid., p. 50. 

* Robinson, J. H., Petrarch, New York and London, 1914, pp. 125-126. 

5 G. Lanson, Histoire de la litterature frangaise, Paris, 1916, p. 156. 



8o 

an example of the " negociateur-amateur " and belonged by birth 
to the bourgeoisie, which had come to the fore in the fourteenth cen- 
tury. He was also typical of the laicisation of learning — a field of 
human endeavor that had for centuries been confined to the clerical 
caste. A testimony to the breaking down of bars in this direction 
is seen in the semi-literary quarrel of the Roman de la Rose, in 
which a layman (Col) and a woman (Christine de Pisan) take part. 
Maitre Gontier's attitude in this quarrel is dictated both by his 
bourgeois point of view, which was not particularly tolerant of the 
knightly attitude on the woman question, and by his defense of the 
individualistic moral code, which was peculiarly characteristic of the 
Renaissance. 

As for the artistic side of the Pre-Renaissance, Col shows an 
interest in fine manuscripts, tapestries, relics of the Saints set in 
jewels — 2i taste which in all its phases was Mediaeval as well as 
Renaissance ; and there is no documentary evidence to show that he 
had leanings towards the artistic tastes of the early Italian 
Humanists. 

Col's chief interest to us lies in that his was what may be 
called a pioneer mind : he was deeply absorbed in the contemporary 
quickening of intellectual pursuits, whether in the classics or the 
"sciences." In his case, the interest was in the classics, and his 
genuine love of books is pretty well established by contemporary 
evidence. The other point of contact for us lies in his relations with 
Monstereul, and the role he played in the latter's development along 
the lines of Humanism. In this case, Col taught better than he 
knew, for Monstereul, who called him his " praeceptor," surpassed 
him in his receptivity of the new spirit. 

The connection between Col, Monstereul and Clamanges, and 
the role that they played as a group, in the early development of 
Humanism in France, must also be noted as well as the importance 
played by the diplomatic position of Col and Monstereul, in throw- 
ing them in contact with the Humanists. It seems fairly clear that 
the role of diplomatic missions must not be disregarded when tracing 
the introduction of Humanism into France. 

As has been observed. Col has left little literary baggage, 
whether as regards descriptions of his missions or personal letters. 



8i 

Yet enough can be gleaned from them and from contemporary 
documents to get a fair idea of the sturdy figure of the bourgeois 
of Sens, diplomatic agent and " carrier " of Humanism, who by his 
class, his affiliations, and his intellectual sympathies, foreshadows 
some of the dominant characteristics of the following literary age. 



82 



APPENDICES 

Appendix A 

Le compte de Hemon Ragnier argentier de la Royne pour un an 
commengant le premier jour de fevrier 1400 et finissant au derre- 
nier jour de Janvier 1401 tout inclus. 

Archives Nationales, KK 42, fol. 35 v°. 

A Jehan Tarenne changeur et bourgoys de Paris Pour cent 
mars de vaisselle d'argent dore prinse et achetee de luy par Tordon- 
nance de la Royne et qu'elle a donne et fait presenter de par elle 
C'est assavoir a la fille de Monsieur le Vidame de Laonnois grant 
maistre d'ostel du Roy le jour de ses nopces Ix™ de ladite vaisselle. 
A la fille Maistre Gontier Col pareillement et pour semblable cause 
XX™ et a Jehan de la Barre receveur en Languedoc semblablement 
xx"" lesquelles parties font ensemble lesditz C°^ de vaisselle que 
valent au pris de VIII 1. parisis chacun marc VIIPl. p. que paiez lui 
ont este par vertu des lettres de mandement de ladite dame donnees 
le XXVP jour de fevrier I'an mil CCCC et ung et par quictance 
faicte le XV® jour d'avril apres Pasques mil CCCC et deux tout cy 
rendu a court. 

Appendix B 

D'Hozier, Pieces originales, vol. 807, Piece 4. (Bib. nat.) 

Saichent tuit que ie Gontier Col congnoiz avoir eu et receu de 
Jehan le franc tresorier du Roy nostresire es terres que souloit 
tenir en Normandie le Roy de Navarre la somme de Cent quinze 
livres tor. que mons. Charles de Navarre me devoit pour la vente 
bail et delivrance de six hanaps d'argent dorez et esmailles en fons 
pesans douze mars cinq onces quinze esterlins les quelx mon dit 
seignour a euz de moi. de laquelle somme des CXV 1. t. dessus diz, 
je me tiens abien paie et en quite le dit mons. Charles le dit tresorier 
et tous autres. Donne soubs mon seel et sing manuel le XXIIIP 
jour de fevrier Tan mil CCCIIIP'' 

Gontier (Sceau pendant en 
cire rouge). 



83 

Appendix C 
D'Hozier, Pieces originales, vol. 807, Piece 5. (Bib. nat.) 

Saichent tuit que ie Gontier Col. clerc notaire et secretaire 
du Roy nostresire. Confesse avoir eu et receu de Nicolas de la 
Heze. Receveur et voyer de Mante et de Meullent. la somme de 
Cent dix nuef livres dix s. par. a moy deue. pour mes gaiges de 
six s. par. par iour que je prengs du dit seigneur a cause de mon 
office de notaire et pour mes manteaulx. come il appert par deux 
cedules de la Chambre aux deniers d'ycellui seigneur, donnees 
i'une le XXP de Janvier. MCCCIIIP^ et VIII et I'autre le XV« 
de Janvier MCCCIIIP^ et X verifiees en la chambre des comptes 
du Roy nostresire a Paris le XIIP jour de novembre MCCCIIIP* 
et XIII. -De laquelle somme de cent dix nuef livres dix s. par. a 
moy payee par le dit Receveur et voyer par vertu du mand (ement) 
dudit seigneur donreceut (sic) a messieurs les tresoriers de f ranee 
donne le XXIX' iour doct (obre) I'an MCCCIIIP^ et XIII. ex- 
pedie par yceulx tresoriers et ataiche aux diz mand (emens) et 
cedules le XVIIP de mars. Fan MCCCIIII^ et treze Je me tieng 
pour bien content et paye et en quitte le Roy nostre dit seigneur, 
ledit Receveur et voyer et touz autres. tesmoing mon seel et signe 
manuel mis a ces presentes. Escriptes de ma main le XXIP jour 
du dit moys de mars, mil CCCIIII"^ et treze. dessus dit. 

Gontier (Sceau pendant 
en cire rouge.) 
Appendix D 

The two following Latin letters are those mentioned on page 63 of the 
text. The first is described as follows in the Catalogue General des Manuscrits 
des Bibliotheques Publiques de France [vol. XXXVII (1905). Tours, par M. 
Collon, p. 703, No. 978, Recueil II]. " Correspondance d'Ambroise de Miliis 
avec Gontier (Probablement Gonthier Col, ambassadeur de Charles VI). . . . 
3° Fol. 60. Lettre de Gonthier a Ambroise de Miliis pour le blamer de sa con- 
duite a I'egard de Jean, prevot de Lille." 

Immediately following it will be found the letter published in the Opera 
Omnia of Nicolas de Clamanges (pp. 33-36), written sub nomine Guntheri Colli, 
that bears such a striking textual resemblance to the foregoing. 

lustum erat Ambrosi, si saperes aut boni in te viri imaginem 
ostendere velles te tuis benefactoribus grati animi vicem rependere 
nee pro impensis tibi beneficiis tot eos maledictis et convitiis inces- 



84 

sere aut si morem nature gerens ingratus esse decreveras alium pro- 
fecto querere debebas (ad quern?) tua criminatoria scripta tot in 
Johannem prepositum Insulani iniurias euomentia dirigeres. | Nee 
me tue ingratitudinis astipulatorem talia michi de meo amico et 
singulari amico scribens significasse videreris. Satis tibi esse opor- 
tuerat ab uno te iura fidei | legem benevolentie f edere amicicie vio- 
lari absque hoc quod alios ab isto infamj vitio abhorrentes tecum in 
suspicionem et consortium perfidie consimilis adscisceres. Sed 
quamquam me eo ipso a te lesum putem quod me potissime delegisti 
ad quem tanta de amicissimo probra conscriberes que etsi digna tuo 
ore duxisti et meis tamen auribus et suis moribus indignissima sunt 
omictam tamen iam de mea lesione dicere et ad causam amici veniam 
et quam si verus et integer eius amicus sum ut certe sum non secus 
atque meam putare debeo. Non inficiaberis ut opinor lohannem 
de te optime meritum quod si perges inficiarj omnes pene qui te 
noverunt. Ymo vero sol ipse qui tantam ipsius in te benevolentiam 
vidit testimonium adversus te dicturi sunt nemo est enim pene qui 
tot eius in te officia | tot tui commendaciones | tot pro te interces- 
siones nesciat. Scio ego scis tu ipse sciunt plures sua et mea 
precipue instancia factum esse ] ut tu pauper inops alienigena 
miserabilis potius quam invidiosus illius incliti principis famulatum- 
que nunc tantopere extolleris adipiscereris cum ilium et me quotidie 
pro aliquo servicio impetrando tot supplicibus precibus fatigares 
tot importunitatibus obtunderes. Taceo domum lohannis non aliter 
quam sibimet ipsi tibi semper patuisse et tuarum miseriarum ac in- 
opiarum profugium fuisse nee dico quam familiariter quam liberali- 
ter quam festive quam lepide quam amice domus ilia exceperit et 
tractarit. Omicto et ea narrare que de eius in te amore et honore 
singulariter ipse^ | vel maxime comperta habeo cum mecum sepius 
et familiarius de hiis rebus quam cum alio quopiam loqueretur 
quibus te ad astra laudibus eiferebat quam ereber et assiduus de te 
illi sermo erat quantum tuam humilitatem tuam modestiam tuos 
gestus tuos mores nundum apprime cognitos commendabat. Quan- 
tum tuam eloquenciam nundum caninam effectam venerabatur quo- 
modo te in literarie et stili accuratione supra quam res et Veritas 
erant exaltabat. ut vel sic tuae inopie per aliquam promotionem 
1 [Fol. 60 verso.] 



85 

subveniret. Quomodo illo suo visceroso et flagranti afifectu suo cor- 
diali et sincere more omnia tua ampliabat | et <ut'> tue necessitati 
simul que utilitati consuleret in maius ferebat. | Pro hiis tot in te 
erogatis beneficiis et plerisque aliis que enarrare longum esset num 
quid a te nunc une optimo contempni meretur | et tot impure lingue 
contumelias audire. que eo sibi graviora sunt quod te non auctorem 
talium sed si ab alio in eum dicerentur futurum certe vindicem et 
fidum in repellendo adiutorem sperabat | nee certe ego ipse aliter 
sperassem. Sed tu votis suis et spe mentem bonam sepe falli 
docuisti. Itaque non tibi uni hac tua petulancia offuisti sed | multis 
aliis exteris advenisque et tuis presertim conregionalibus ac popu- 
laribus quorum verbis aut votis nos gallici tuo exemplo edocti non 
tarn facilem de postero fidem habebimus veriti scilicet ne quod in 
te experti sumus anguis aliquis cauda percuciens in herba lateat. 
Quod si prior ipse te lesisset | si ulla in te signa non dico digni 
animi sed minus solito amici aut benivoli perdidisset aliquo tamen 
saltem pallio tua convicia tegerentur Nunc vero quod nichil lesus 
nichil abeo jniurie passus | tam virulenta et procaci oratione in eum 
Repente jnvasisti omnia pene flagiciorum genera que tuus fecundus 
animus excogitare potuit in eius contumeliam coacervando tuum 
tand<em> nobis ingenium diucius celatum aperiusti tuam frontem 
diu obductam exporrexisti tui animi latebras et archana longua 
simulacione contecta in lucem eduxisti. Unde magne merito gratie 
tibi ab eo habende sunt quod tandem apud se fingere desisti et 
qualis animo esses talis lingua et vultu esse cepisti. Nam quam 
frivola ilia sit occasio qua nescio quando verba^ | quedam 
acerbiora in te eum protulisse Refers verba ipsa satis demo- 
strant nuper inquis me meum negotium serio agentem interpel- 
lans I quia non ilico missis omnibus nugis suis responsa ferebam 
in verba iniuriosa prosiluit | meque michi ipsi natum cum im- 
properio obiecit. O acerbam contumeliam | o nefarium verbum 
capitalique merito supplicio plectendum. Redi queso paulisper ad 
te-0-Ambrosi et discussa animi tui caligine tecum tandem cogita 
utrum tanta in amicum tuum maledicta pro hac unica voce libere et 
confidenter ut amicorum verba decet emissa congerere debuisti | 
Nonne et suis ex meritis et jure amicicie tantum sibi apud te licere 
2 [Fol. 6i recto.] 



86 

poterat | ut unum illud verbum sine tanta tua stomacacione enun- 
ciaret. Si hac lege amicos habere vis | ut apud te non loquantur. 
nisi prefinito et que tibi placeant Vide | ne amicis orbatus loco 
eorum assentatores amplectaris qui te in tuis erroribus palpando 
foueant | et iuxta comici verbum ex stulto insanum faciant. Quis 
nescit in amiciciis verissimis sepe verborum votorum animorum dis- 
sentiones sepe reprehensiones objurgaciones interuenire quibus non 
solum non tollitur amicicia sed potius proficitur atque integratur. 
Quod ipsum eciam comicum vite humane sagacissimum expressorem 
non latuit | amancium inquit ire amoris integratio est. | A quo enim 
objurgacionem, aut castigacionem equo animo accipies | si ab amico 
nolis. Quomodo autem ab amico castigacionem feres si unam ab eo 
sententiam paulo asperiorem et tuo placito aduersantem non 
tuleris. Nihil ergo est quod iuste causeris occasionem tibi ab eo 
tam inimice insectacionis aut mendose vituperacionis obiectam | sed 
tuus aut invidia adversus eum aut egritudine alia tabescens animus 
suique morbi iam prevalentis ulterius impaciens | banc tandem oc- 
casionem fluxam levem invalidum et ut pro Re digna verba dicam 
perversam et iniustam commentus est qua id quod diu conceperat 
et intra se aluerat parturiret. Et tuam forte scientiam ostentare 
voluisti qui lohannem de ignorancia tam amara inuectione coarguis. 
Scilicet probe docuisti te scire conuiciarj maledicere amicos calump- 
niarj scelera et mendacia in eos | fingere quas artes sacius fuerat 
non edidicisse^ | vel si animo inheserant illic melius recondite latuis- 
sent quam in amicorum et innocencium suggillacionem exerceren- 
tur. Nolo autem nunc particularia opprobia-que in eum iacularis 
actingere | quia et res prolixior esset cum de hoc longam texueris 
inuectiuam et Response nichil opus est cum a tuis calumpniis sua 
satis eum defendat integritas. | Quamquam si res purgacione vel 
responso digna esset | et te quoque non jndignum indicaret cum quo 
sibi contentio suscipi deberet facile satis sibi erat tua iacula in caput 
tuum Retorquere et ut apud Persium est | mordaci Radere vero 
auriculas | Nee desunt alij eiusdem amici quibus si talia de eo 
scripsisses tibi | a tergo longe aliter quam presens portat pagina 
Rescripsissent. Vale et si tue lingue ac stilo frenos apponere nescis 
I Vide tamen si mihi credis deinceps considerantius in quam partem 
tue habene laxabuntur. 
3 [Fol. 6i verso.] 



87 

Nicolai de Clemangiis, Opera Omnia, Lydius edition Lugduni 
Batavorum, cb be XIII pp. 33-36. Epistola VIL Sub Nomine 
Guntheri Colli regij Secretarij, ad eundem Ambrosium scripta; 
suae^ ingratitudinis in lohannem Praepositum Insulensem increpa- 
toria.'^ 

lustum^ erat Ambrosi, si saperes, aut boni in te viri imaginem 
velles ostendere, te tuis benefactoribus grati animi vicem rependere 
nee pro impensis tibi beneficijs maledictis illos conuitijsq;^ incessere. 
Aut si* ingratus esse decreueras, alium vtique quoerere^ debebas, 
ad quern tua criminatoria scripta, tot in lohannem Praepositum In- 
sulanum iniurias euomentia dirigeres. Nec^ me^ tali abhorrentem 
vitio, tuae ingratitudinis adstipulatorem,^ talia mihi de meo amico^ 
singulari amico scribens insinuasse videreris.^^ Satis tibi esse opor- 
tuerat ab uno te, iura fidei, legem beneuolentie/^ f oedus^^ amicitiae^^ 
violari. Absque hoc quod alios immeritos a tantisque peruersitati- 
bus alienos tecum in susceptionem^* vel consortium^^ perfidiae^^ 
consimilis adscisceres. Sed quamquam me eo ipso a te non medi- 
ocriter lesum putem, quod me potissimum delegisti, ad quem talia de 
amicissimo conscriberes : quae^^ et si digna tuo ore aut thalamo^^ 
duxisti, et meis tamen erant auribus, & suis moribus indignissima. 
Omittam tamen de mea laesione^^ dicere, &^*^ ad causam mei amici 
veniam : quam si verus atque integer illius amicus sum,^^ non secus 
atq; meam aestimare^^ debeo. Imo^^ eo magis quam propriam 
curare, quo honestius de amicorum iniuria, quam de nostra labora- 
mus. Non inficiaberis, vt opinor, loannem optime^^ de te meritum, 

* Foot-notes show variant readings found in ms. lat. 3127, fol. 13 recto — 
fol. 14 recto, Bibliotheque Nationale. 

1 sue. 13 amicicie. 

2 14 suspicionem. 

3 conviciisque lacessere. i^ consorcium. 

4 si morem nature gerens. 1^ perfidie. 

5 querere. i^ que. 

6 Ne. 1^ calamo. 

7 a me. i» les-. 

8 stipulatorem. 20 ad causamque. 
^ et de meo : et singulari amico. 21 sive non. 

10 videris. 22 extimare. 

11 beni-. 23 Ymo. 

12 f edus. 24 Johannem de te optima. 



88 

quod si ausu impudentissimO' perges inficiari, non modo pene omnes, 
qui ambos nouerunt, testimoniu aduersus te dicent, sed sol ipse: 
suae^^ per dies beneuolentiae^^ testis assistet: Luna autem atque 
sydera per noctes Quis enim nescit, domum lohannis, non aliter 
atq.^^ sibimet ipsi die noctuq; tibi patuisse, tuarumque miseriarum 
atque inopiarum perfugium fuisse: quam^^ familiariter, quam 
liberaliter, quamque^^ f estiue, iocunde, lepide domus ilia te exceperit 
& tractarit ?^*^ Tantumne de laetheo^^ flumine bibisti ut obliuisci 
potueris sua meaque instantia^^ atque opera factum esse ut illius 
clarissimi principis famulatum, quo tantopere modo insolescis^^ 
adipiscereris ? Cum tu pauper, inops alienigena, miserabilis potius^* 
quam inuidiosus, me atque ilium, supplici prece, assidua postu- 
latione,^^ incredibilique importunitate,^^ pro aliquo tibi impetrando 
seruitio quotidie^^ obtunderes? Tuaene^^ memoriae^^ tam cito ex- 
ciderunt tot illius in te officia, tot tui laudes, & commendationes :*° 
tot pro te apud quoscumque poterat intercessiones. Omitto ilia 
commemorare, quae*^ de illius in te amore, studio, affectu, honore, 
singular iter prae multis alijs comperta habeo. Cum saepius*^ ac 
familiar ius quam cum quouis alio de ijs*^ rebus mecum loqueretur, 
quantum tuam humilitatem, tuam modestiam, tuos gestus, tuos 
mores, nundum** apprime cognitos commendebat. Quinimo*^ creber 
imo*® assiduus, de te illi sermo erat, quibus te ad coelum laudibus 
efferebat, quantum*^ [fol 13 verso] tuam eloquentiam (nundum*^ 
caninam) extolebat:*^ quomodo te in litteris, & styli^*^ cultu, supra 
quam res aut Veritas erat exaltabat: quomodo illo suo visceroso 
ingentique affectu omnia tua in rnaius augebat. quo vel sic tuae^^ 

25 sue. 39 .rie. 

26 benivolente. ^0 -clones. 

27 ac. ^^ que. 

28 desunt 42 se. 

29 deest. 43 his. 

30 tractauerit. 44 non-. 

31 letheo. 45 Quam. 

32 -cia. 48 ymo. 

33 nunc imtumescis. 47 Note deleted. 

34 pocius. 48 non-. 

35 -cione. 49 extollebat. 

36 opportunitat'e. 5o stili. 

37 deest. 51 tue. 

38 Tue. 



89 



indigentiae^^ per aliquam posset promotionem^^ esse consultum. 
Non tua tarn lubrica tunc erat memoria, cum^* tanta promittebas 
beneficia, nullo umquam tepore a tua mente labi : cu^^ obsequium, 
gratitudine mutua vice relaturum^^ spondebas. Pro ijsne^^ quoeso 
tantis in te cumulatis mentis & alijs plaenisque^^ quae longum nimis 
esset enumerare, iure a te contemni'^® meruerat, totq impurissimae^^ 
linguae^^ contumelias audire? Quae®^ idcirco ipsi^^ grauiora sunt, 
quod talium te nequaqua auctorem, sed si ab altero in eum iaceren- 
tur^* fidum in repellendo adiutorem futurum sperabat: nee ipse 
tente^^ aliter sperassem. Sed tu verum esse docuisti, quod Poeta 
Elegiacus^^ ait : 

Fallitur augurio mens bona saepe^^ suo.^^ Tu itaque hac tua 
petulantia,^^ non tibi uni obfuisti/^ verum multis^^ exteris, aduenis- 
que/^ conregionalibus ac popularibus, quorum verbis aut promis- 
sionibus," veriti scilicet ne quod in te sumus experti, anguis aliquis 
Cauda percutiens in herba latitet. Quod si prior ipse te laessisset/* 
si vlla in te signa, non dice alienati animi, sed minus solito amici, 
aut beneuoli/^ prodidisset: aliquo^*' saltem pallio tua insectatio 
tegeretur. Nunc vero, quod nihil laesus/^ nihil ab eo iniuriae^^ 
passus, tam virulenta procaciq. oratione in ilium repente inuasisti, 
omnia fere criminu genera, quae^^ tuus faecundus^^ animus excogi- 
tare preualuit, in ilium iaciens, tuum tandem nobis ingenium 
diutius^^ celatum atque obtectum, palam ex latebroso inuoloto^^ 
euoluisti, tuam frontam longius obductam exporrexisti, tui praeg- 



52 -cie. 

53 -cionem. 
5* quando. 

55 quando. 

56 relaturum te. 

57 his. 

58 plerisque que. 

59 contempni. 
«o -sime. 

*i -gue. 

«2 Que. 

*3 sibi. 

** dicerentur. 

*5 de te ; certe. 

** eligiacus. 

67 sepe. 

68 cf. Ovid. Hes. i6. 234. 



63 -lancia. 

70 offuisti. 

71 multis aliis. 

72 aduenisque tuis tamen precipue. 

73 promissionibus nos Galli tuo 
exemplo edocti, non tam facilem de 
postero fidem habebimus. 

7* les-. 

75 beni-. 

76 aliquo tamen. 

77 lesus. 

78 -rie. 

79 que. 

80 fee-. 

81 -cius. 

82 inuolocru, involucre. 



90 

nantis cordis arcana,®^ longa simultatione^* contecta, aliquando in 
lucem effudisti : hac^^ super re, magnae^^ ab illo tibi merito haben- 
dae^^ gratiae sunt: quod tandum apud ipsum^^ fingere desijsti, Et 
qualis animo eras, talis lingua, vultu, calamo esse caepisti :^^ quod 
fraudem, dolum, fallaciam,^^ duplicitatem parras^^ (vt ait Ver- 
gilius)^^ Ligurum artes, apud ipsum^^ tadem aperuisti, apud alios 
fortassis etia nuc obtectas, (quo nuda & aperta cerneret®* veritate, 
quale erat amicum sortitus.) Nam quam friuola ilia sit occasio, 
qua nescio cum^^ verba quaedam^® acerbiora in te ilium protulisse 
causaris, verba ipsa apertius^^ ostendunt: Nuper inquis me meum 
negotium^^ serio agentem^^ interpellans, quia non ilico^^^ missis om- 
nibus, nugis ipsius^^^ responsa ferebam, in verba iniuriosa prosi- 
luit,^^^ meq^^^ iniuriaru^^* cum iurgio obiecit. O acerbam con- 
tumeliam, o nefarium improper ium capitalique merito supplicio 
plectedum. Redi quaeso^^^ paulisper ad te o Ambrosi, discussaque 
animi tui caligine,^^® tecum^^^ tandem cogita, utrum ne tanta in 
amicum maledicta pro hac vna voce libere ac fiducialiter emissa, 
sicuit inter amicos licet congerere atque euomere debueris. Nonne^^^ 
& iure amicitiae^^^ & suis tantis in te meritis, tum ista apud te dicere 
sibi licere debebat, tum, te ilia patienter^^^ audire decebat. Si hac 
lege habere amicos vis, vt apud te non loquantur, nisi praefinito^^^ 
& que^^^ tibi placeant. Vide ne amicis orbatus loco eorum assenta- 
tores amplectaris, qui te palpando in errore foueant. Tuxtaque 
Comici sententiam,"^ ex stulto insanum faciant."* Quis ignorat in 

83 archana. loo illico. 

84 simulacione (simula?). ; ^°^ suis. 

85 Qua. ^^2 prosiliit meque uni natum cum 
8« magne. uirgilio obiecit (sic). 

87 habende sunt gre. ^os Note deleted. 

88 sc. ^04iniurijs. 

89 cep-. ^^'^ queso. 

^^ f allaciam : dolum. ^oc calligine. 

SI patrias. ^^^ tandem tecum. 

»2 Vir. Aen. XL 716. los Note deleted. 

93 se. ^°® amicicie. 

»* cerneres. ^'^^ pacienter. 

95 quando. ^^^ pref-. 

86 quedam. ^^^ que. 

87 apercius. ^^^ Terence. Eunuchus. 2. 2. 23. 
88negocium. 11* Note deleted. 

99 Note deleted. 



91 

veris amicitijs"^ maximan pater e libertatem loquendi, arguendi, 
repraehendendi, objurgandi : magnas quoque soepe"® interuenire^" 
dissentiones/^® quibus non tollitur amicitia/^^ sed magis perficitur 
arque integratur. Quod etiam ipsum^^^ Comicum, vitae humanae^^^ 
sagicissimum expressorem, minime latuit, cum dixit :^" Amantium 
irae/^^ amoris redintegratio^^* est. A quo obiurgatione vel cas- 
tigatione^^° (aequo animo accipies si ab amico nolis? Quemad- 
modum^^^ autem ab amico castigationem)^^® feres si vnum verbum 
paulo asperius, tuoque placito aduersum, non tuleris : nihil ergo est 
quod iuste obtendas accusationem^^^ tibi ab es tam inimicoe^^^ accusa- 
tionis, tamque^^^ criminosae^^^ [fol. 14 recto] vituperationis^^^ obiec- 
tam: Sed tuus aut inuidia adversus eum, aut aegritudine^^^ alia^^* 
turbatus animus, & ipsa sua turbatione^^^ non satis rationi obsequens, 
nee frenis se moderationis cohibere praeualens, quod iamdudum in 
se conceperat, atque intra se clausum aluerat, tanden more ulterioris 
impatiens parturire voluit, f orasque effundere : utque aliqua specie^^® 
excusationis^^^ suam culpam palliaret, hanc infirmam occasionem,- 
cum firmiorem habere^^^ non posset, tanta^^® effundendae^*^ maligni- 
tatis excogitauit. Tuam ante scientiam^*^ vt arbitror^*^ ostetare volu- 
isti qui loannem^*^ de ignorantia^** taamara inuectione redarguis. 
Scilicet probre"^ docuisti, te scire conuitiari,^*^mordere, maledicere, 
calumniari, mendacia in amicos^*^ & crimina fingere, quae^*® non tam 
doctorum sunt hominum quam malarum ac periidorum: quas pro- 

^^5 amiciciis. 1^2 -cionis obtectam. 

ii« sepe. 133 egr-. 

117 animorum. 13*^1 (aliter?). 

118 -ciones. i35 -cione. 

118-cicia. 136 spe (sans abbreviation). 

120 ipsum etiam. i37 -cionis. 

121 vite humane. i38 invenire. 

122 Terence : Andria 3. 3. 23. i39 tante. 

123 ire. 1*0 -dende. 

12* integracio. 1*1 ut arbitror sententiam. 

125 -cionem. 1*2 Note deleted. 

i2« desunt. 1*3 Johannem. 

127 quomodo 1** -rancia. 

128 obtendat occasionem. i*5 probe. 

129 inimice -cionis. i*^ -ciari. 

130 -nose. 147 animos. 

131 Note deleted. 1*8 que. 



92 

fecto artes sat vis^*^ fuerat non edidicisse, vel si animo memori- 
aeq f-^^ tenacius haerebant/^^ melius illic reconditae^^^ latuissent, qua 
in amicorum, innocentumq ; suggillatione^^^ foras erumperet. Sed 
tibi forte animos eloquentia^^* tollit. Si illam cum sapientia haberes, 
doceret ipsa sapietia non te inde^^^ extolli oportere/^^ Si vero sine 
sapientia habes, docet te Tullius^^^ talem eloquentiam ciuitatibus 
ac rebuspublicis esse pernitiosam.^^^ Quomodo autem cum isto 
folleo pectore, atque maliuolo animo sapientiam^^^ habere potes: 
cum scriptum sit : In maleuolam^®^ animam non intrabit^^^ sapientia. 
Porro cum Philosophi definiant sapientiam/^^ rerum diuinarum 
humanarumque esse notitiam, de qua potes gloriari sapietia ut 
aliorum ita exaggeres ignorantiam,^®^ qui ipsam satis^^* Gramatica 
vix es assecutus? Nam de arte quidem Rhetorica^^^ quid aliud 
quatum ad te attinet dicam, nisi quod facilius si sobrie saperes, tua 
in ilia arte vitia^^® tuosque errores, ab alijs fortassis agnitos, ipse 
forte"^ posses agnoscere/®^ 

Nolo aute nunc particulatim singula^^^ quae in loanne^^^ iacu- 
laris opprobria^^^ attingere, quoniam ea^^^ res prolixior esset, cum 
logam inde texueris inuectiuam, & nihiP^^ videtur responso^^* opus 
esse, cu a tuis obtrectationibus^^^ sua satis illu defendat^^^ inte- 
gritas.^^^ Quamquam si res purgatione vel responso digna esset, 
& te quoque non indignum indicaret, cum quo sibi cotentio suscipi 
deberet, facile satis ipsi^'^^ erat,^^^ tua in caput tuu iacula retor- 
quere, tuasque (ut apud^^^ Persium est) — mordaci rodere ferro^^^ 
Auriculas. 



149 satius, sacius. 


- 165 rethorica. 


150 -rieque. 


166 vicia. 


151 here-. 


167 deest. 


152 -dite. 


168 cognoscere. 


153 suggillacioni (sic). 


i69fimgula (sic) (simgula?) 


154 Note deleted. 


170 Johannem. 


155 deest. 


171 obprobria. 


156 opportere. 


172 et. 


157 tulius. 


i73nichil. 


158 -ciosam. 


174 response videtur opus esse cum. 


159 -ciam. 


175 -cionibus. 


160 maliuolam. 


176 deffendat 


161 introibit 


i77integitas (sic). 


162 diffiniant sapienciam. 


178 deest 


163 -ciam. 


179 foret 


164 vix es grammaticam satis as- i^o Pers. i. 107. 


secutus. 


181 radere verbo. 



93 

Nee desunt alij ipsius amici, quibus si talia de illo seripsisses, 
aliter ac^^^ praesens portat pagina, tibi rescripsissent. Vale, & vide 
ne illi versus Vergiliani^*^ in alium moribus & patria tui similem 
scripti te respiciant, tibique merito possint aptari. 

Vane^^* ligus, frustri^^^ nimis^^^ elate superbis. 

Nec^^^ quicquam patrias tentasti^^^ lubricus artes.^^^ 

182 quam. i86 animis. 

183 virgiliani. i87 Ne. 

18* Vane Ligur, frust'raque animi iss temptasti. 

elate superbis. Vide Aeneid lib. ii. is^Aen. XI. 715, 716. 

185 f rustraque. 



94 



APPENDIX E 

Bibliotheque Nationale. Ms. latin 13062. fol. 69. ro^ — fol. 
75. vo. 

The letter is long and tedious, made up of endless repetitions and 
redundancies in which Jehan de Monstereul's wrath finds vent. It 
is of little value to us, save for the passages cited below. 

For reference to quotation from Vergil, fol. ']2. verso. 

Maxime nobis gallis horum nesciis quin/prorsus ea abhorren- 
tibus ut/scopulos, debuisses nempe si quid sensus inesset, tuis dum- 
taxat similibus, talium quidem artificiosissimus talia/reservasse 
apud quos hec sententia publice locum habet, aliud in pectore, aliud 
in lingua promptum habere, dicere unum et aliud facere, et ubi 
tandem decipere legitime est mercari, de/cuiuscomodi mercurii 
doctoris tui sententiis eas te dudum comprobantem reprehendi et 
extunc pro/tuisque nonnullis aliis obprobriis illud tibi maronianum 
me/recolo/ scriptonenus impinxisse. Vane/ligur, frustaque animis 
elate superbis, nequiquam patrias temptasti lubricus artes.^ 

Passing references to the Ligurian are to be found as follows : 

fol. 70. verso. 

. . et denique quod sui de/simillimo liguro alio tuUius pridem 
ait. 

fol. 71. recto. 

. . te rogaverim gonthere mi . . . ne huic assueto malo liguri 
canante virgilio acetero (?) credas vel confidas . . . 

fol. 74. verso. 

. . perfidiam liguris ... 

fol. 75. recto. 

Meminisse necesse est, tametsi melius me tutemet scias, optime 
mi gonthere, et/pluries pluribus recitasti, te scilicet de isto ligure 
nullatenus habuisse notionem, aut pro/eo intercessisse quoquo pacto, 
nisi per me, nisi mea monitione, mea/prece, et inductu. 

1 Virgil Aenead 11: 716. 



95 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The following bibliography lists only titles mentioned in the dissertation, 
and does not include material that has been examined and that has yielded no 
results, or books that, like Lasteyrie's bibliography, have served to refer me to 
sources that have proved useful. As the dissertation was finished by April, 1916, 
no pubhcations issued after that date have been included. 

Achery, L. d'. " Veterum aliquot scriptorum qui in galliae bibliothecis maxime 

Benedictorum latuerant, spicilegium." Paris, 1657-77. 
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I 



I02 



NAME INDEX 



Abbaye de Saint-Remy, 6. 

Agincourt, 42. 

Ailly, Pierre d', 67, 'IZ, 77, 78. 

Amiens, 26. 

Andrieu, Jehan, 41. 

Andry, Jean, 39. 

L'Aretino, 78. 

Armagnac, i, 27, 43, 44. 

Aragon, king of, 39. 

d'Auvergne, Martial, 10. 

Avignon, 11-16, 20, 22, 64, 69, 71, 78. 

Barneville, 43. 

Baye, Nicolas de, 27. 

Beaumoulin, Charles de, 6. 

Beauvais, 42. 

Benedict XIII, 12, 14, 64, 71. 

Berguire, 45, 75, 79. 

Berry, duke of, 11, 15-20, 26-27, 74- 

Berry, Mme. de, 18. 

Boccacio, 76. 

Boethius, 2)3, 7p' 

Boisratier, Guillaume de, 40. 

Boucicaut, 58. 

Bourges, archbishop of, 28, 36, 37, 38, 

39, 40, 41. 
Braquemont. seigneur de, z?, 39- 
Brittany, duke of, 29, 31-34. 
Bruni, Leonardo, 65. 
Burbon, duke of, 58. 
Burgundians, i, 3. 
Burgundy, duke of, 11, 13, 18, 20, 21, 

26-28, 43-44, 55, 74. 
Bus, Gervais du, 10. 
Calais, 20, 22, 38. 
Canterbury, archbishop of, 2)^, 37, 39, 

40. 
Catherine of France, 28, 35, 37-38, 40. 
Cato, 33, 72, 76 
Celestins, 5 ; prior of, 42. 
Chacerat, Jean, 5. 
Chacerat, Marguerite, 3, 5, 6. 
Chalons, 13. 

Charles V, 9, 23, 64, 74. 
Charles VI, i, 3, 9, 11, 18, 21, 22, 28, 35. 
Chartier, Alain, 10, 55, 65-67. 
Chester, bishop of, 36. 
Clamanges, Nicolas de, i, 5, 60, 61, 63, 

64, 66, 69, 70-72, 78, 80. 
Cicero, 59. 
Clement VII, 11. 
Cloche, Jehan de la, 25. 
Col, Catherine, 4, 6. 
Col, Isabeau, 6. 



Col, Gautier or Walter, 4. 

Col, John, 4. 

Col, Nicolas, 4, 6. 

Col, Pierre, 6. 

Col, Pierre (Canon), 5, 47, 49, 50, 52, 
72. 

Col, Simon, 4. 

Columbus, Christopher, 72, 78. 

Confrerie, of the notaries and secre- 
taries of the king, 8, 9, 10. 

Cornwall (Cornouaille), bishop of, 31. 

Cour Amoureuse, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58. 

Courtecuisse, Jean, 77. 

Crecy, 24. 

Dauphin, 43. 

Deschamps, Gilles, 13. 

Dijon, 13. 

Dorset (d'Orsete), le Comte, 36, Z7- 

Durham (Duresme), bishop of, 36, 37, 
38, 39. 

Dyne, 6. 

Filelfo, 65. 

Florence, 16, 21, 78. 

Franc-Gontier, 66, 67, 68. 

Fusaris, J., 41, 42. 

Gerson, Jean, 49, 50, 52, 55, 72, 77, 78. 

Gregory XI, i, 11. 

Guillaume le Compasseur, 6. 

Hauvette, H., 76. 

Henry V, 28, 29, 37, 40, 42, 43. 

Horace, 2>2), 70, 72. 

Hovenden (Houemden), Comte de, 36. 

Isabeau de Baviere, 49, 53, 55. 

Isabella of France, 20-23. 

d'lvry, baron, 39. 

Jacquerie, 24. 

Jacques Bonhome, 24. 

Jean le Bon, 8, 45, 79. 

Jean le Fevre, 10. 

Fillastre, Guillaume, 76. 

Jeanne of Navarre, 29, 31, 32, ZZ- 

Joecte, arcediacre de, 31. 

Langley, bishop, 28. 

Leicester, 28. 

Leulingham, 23. 

Lisieux, bishop of, 39. 

London, 28. 

Lycurgus, 75, 7^- 

Lyons, 13, 68, 7Z. 

Machaut, 4. 

Manhac, Pierre, 10, 67, 69. 

Marche. Comte de, 36. 

Mareschal, le comte, 36. 



103 



Marguerite de Navarre, 73. 

Matheolus, 10. 

Mauleon, arcediacre de, 31. 

Meung, Jehan de, 32, 47-52, ^2. 

Milan, duke of, 21. 

Miliis, Ambrosius de, 58-66, 68, ^2, 77. 

Monstereul, Jehan de, i, 3, 5, 10, 44, 47, 

53-55, 55^5, 67-70, 73, 7S, 77-8o. 
Montargis, 33. 
Niccoli, Niccolo, 65, 78. 
Norwich (Norebbich), bishop of, 36, 

27, 38, 39, 41, 42. 
Novion, Jacques de, 77. 
Noyon, bishop of, 26. 
Oresme, Nicolas, 46, 74. 
Orleans, 6. 
Orleans, Louis of, 11, 16, 17, 55, 59, 60, 

64, 74. 
Orleans, Charles of, 59. 
Ovid, 59. 
Paris, 34. 
Paron, 5, 6. 

Petrarch, 16, 45, 68, 70, 72, 74, 79. 
Pleiade, 60, 75. 
Pliny, 34, 71. 

Pisan, Christine de, 2, 47-53, 55, 77- 
Poictiers, Dit de, 24. 
Poggio, 65. 

Premierfait, Laurent de, 75, 76. 
Rabelais, 53. 

Religieux de St. Denis, 15, 16, 41. 
Renard le Contrefait, 23. 
Renes, arcediacre de, 31. 
Rheims, 77. 
Richard II, 20, 21, 22. 
Roman de la Rose, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 

64, 70, 72, 80. 



Ronsard, 68. 

Roy, M., 34. 

Saint-Augustin, 50. 

Saint-Jean-Porte-Latine, 8. 

Saint, 19. 

Saint- Valentin, 56. 

Sainte Colombe, 6, 19. 

Sainte Catherine, 56. 

Sainte More, Chrestien Legouis de, 74. 

Sallust, 34, 70. 

Salutato, Coluccio, i, 75, 78. 

Sceve, Maurice, 68. 

Seine, 7. 

Seneca, 60; Anneus, 70. 

Sens, 2, 5, 6, 7, 26, 81. 

Serinvilliers, Casin de, 25. 

Sigismund, 42, 43. 

Spifame, Jean, 46. 

du Souch, seigneur, 36. 

Terence, Z3, 67, 70, 72. 

Thomas, A., 44, 58, 59. 

Tignonville, 26, 49, 55. 

Urban II, i. 

Urban V, 13. 

Vannes, arcediacre de, 31. 

Vaucluse, 45, 79. 

Vendosme, 36. 

Venice, Republic of, i. 

Vergil, 34, 46, 59, 68, 70, 71. 

Visconti, Valentine, 17. 

Vitry, Philippe de, 45, 66, 72,, 74- 

Winchester (Vincestre), bishop of, 38. 

Yonne, 2. 

York (d'Yorc), duke of, 36, 39. 

d'Yvry, Mons., 36. 

Winchester Week, 34. 



VITA 

Le Due, Alma de L., born in Chicago, Illinois, September 20, 
1878; elementary and secondary education received in New Orleans, 
of which city her parents were residents. First two years of col- 
lege work: Newcomb College, New Orleans, Louisiana; Ph.B. Uni- 
versity of Chicago, 1899. Taught French and Spanish at Kansas 
State University, 1 900-1 907 (leave of absence spent in Paris, 
1903-1904). Palmes academiques, 1907; scholarship at the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, 1907- 1908, where she taught French one quar- 
ter. Columbia University, A. M. 1909; holder of the European Fel- 
lowship of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae for 1909-19 10 — 
year spent in Paris — Eleve titulaire de TEcole des Hautes Etudes, 
1910. Private research work. University of Chicago, 1910-1911. 
Instructor in French, Smith College, 1911-1916. Leave of ab- 
sence (Columbia University) 1914-1915. Ph.D. Columbia Uni- 
versity, 19 16. Instructor in French, Barnard College, 191 6- 



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